City stills

More about the book

Ray K. Metzker's stunning streetscapes are captured in this celebration of the photographer's work. These black-and-white photographs, taken over a quarter century and presented here by visual themes, show Metzker pushing the technical boundaries of photography into an undefined formal realm well beyond the expected. Photographs demonstrate Metzker's command of light and four figures wait pensively at a bus stop, as though caged in glass, staring boldly into a wedge of bright light; a lone woman stands outside a train station, engulfed in an ominous stripe of inky shadow, with only the white of her necklace and a folded newspaper as talismans to ward off the darkness. Whether the photographs capture people waiting to take action, or people already in motion, Metzker's technique estranges them from the lockstep rhythm of mundane activity, and makes them stand still - just for a moment. The result is a series of photographs that demands a reinterpretation of the city and its inhabitants.