From November 1, 2007 – January 12, 2008 the Laurence Miller Gallery presents Singular Sensations, an exhibition of 40 recent one-of-a-kind gelatin silver photographs created by Ray K. Metzker. This exhibition is a celebration of Metzker’s retrospective “Light Lines” which opens at the Museé de l’Elysee, in Lausanne, Switzerland, on November 13. The retrospective will be accompanied by a new monograph, Light Lines, published by Steidl. 

Created in the darkroom from a union of masterful light play and photo chemistry, these painterly images arrest and challenge the viewer’s imagination on a departure from the world of reality. By inventive application of the photographic medium, this current body of work, primarily made without the use of a camera, includes techniques from the foundations of photography – photograms and light drawings. By inverting the process he is able to extract a unique palette of colors inherent to black and white photography. Also featured are Arrestations, a series of collages that are constructed from fragments of exposed photographic paper that are torn and pieced together to create a new and altogether different whole.

In this Rorschach-like world, even small details like the torn edge of a piece of paper play a significant role in the manipulation and creation of light. Some images conjure atmospheric landscapes, some the human figure, while others dwell in pure abstraction; but all embody a sense of movement and play that give each viewer a unique perspective and provide passage on a journey limited only by the viewer’s imagination.

Ray K. Metzker has been at work for over fifty years and is one of the most important and original American photographers of the second half of the twentieth century. Collected by major institutions and collectors, his work has been exhibited around the world. Educated at the Institute of Design, Chicago from 1956-1959, which was formerly known as the New Bauhaus, he inherited this avant-garde approach to photography, which he has applied through-out his career. He currently lives and works in Philadelphia.