Ray Metzker

Ray K. Metzker (September 10, 1931 – October 9, 2014) was an American photographer known chiefly for his stark, experimental Black and White cityscapes and for his large assemblages of printed film strips and single frames, known as Composites.

Neither seeking nor achieving particular renown during his lifetime, Metzker's work is held in more than 45 major public collections; He received awards including the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts and Royal Photographic Society.

His longtime dealer, Laurence Miller, called Metzker "the last great Modern photographer."

Background Born in Milwaukee on Sept. 10, 1931 to William Martin Metzker and Mary Helen Metzker (nee Kreuger). Metzker grew up with a brother, Carl and a sister Mary Ellen. With his parents focused on his sister's cerebral palsy, Metzker developed a sense of isolation; he considered himself "acutely shy". Metzker loved classical music, history and drawing,

Career Metzker taught for many years at the Philadelphia College of Art and also taught at the University of New Mexico.

After graduate studies at the Institute of Design in Chicago, Metzker travelled extensively throughout Europe in 1960-61, where he had two epiphanies: that "light" would be his primary subject, and that he would seek synthesis and complexity over simplicity. Metzker often said the artist begins his explorations by embracing what he doesn't know.

Awards 1966: Guggenheim Fellowship, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York: 14 prints (as of 15 December 2021) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Mass. Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Md. Beloit College, Beloit, Wisconsin. Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, Tucson. Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio Davison Art Center, Middleton, Conn. The Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan. Fogg Art Museum, Harvard Art Museums, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Fonds National d'Art Contemporain, Paris High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Ga. George Eastman Museum, Rochester, NY. Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Ky. Maison européenne de la photographie, Paris. Musée de l'Élysée, Lausanne. Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee. Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Japan. Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, Lincoln, Nebraska. Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, Mo. Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio. Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Mass.