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From his early education at The Art Institute of Chicago in the late 50s Ray K. Metzker inherited the rich vocabulary of avant-garde photography between the wars: photomontage, solarization, multiple printing of negatives, unique perspectives, diagonals, etc. From his first exposure to photography, Metzker never lost the urge to experiment with the grammar and syntax of the medium, whether it was games played within the camera itself (the Doubleframes, for example) or complex manipulations in the darkroom (the celebrated Composites). He has drawn inspiration from the neighborhoods where he has lived (mainly Chicago and Philadelphia) and, increasingly, from nature--though the vegetation he depicts might be a weed-clogged vacant city lot as easily as the vast open plains of the American West. Decomposing, recomposing, deconstructing, reconstructing, Metzker reminds us of the great and inexhaustible potential of black-and-white photography when practiced by a master. With 180 tritone-printed images, this publication offers a rare opportunity to examine the full range of Metzker's brilliant and ever-evolving formal language.

287 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2008

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About the author

William A. Ewing

54 books2 followers
William A. Ewing is a Canadian art historian specializing in photography. He served as the director of the Musée de l'Élysée in Lausanne from 1996 to 2010 and has been a research professor in the art history department at the University of Geneva, where he has focused on the history of photography. He has curated numerous international exhibitions and authored several books on the photographic representation of the human body. He is also the founder of the Todi Circle, an annual think tank on photography held in Todi, Italy. His publications include The Body, Le Siècle du Corps, and Edward Steichen: Carnet Mondain.

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