The A Foundation in Brussels is exhibiting the work of one of the pioneers of black and white photography, Ray K. Metzker, known for having explored the streets of Chicago and Philadelphia.

“Photography is so deeply ingrained in me, I can hardly imagine doing anything else. It is my alter ego, the other in my intimate dialogue.” Ray K. Metzker (1931–2014) is a photographer less well-known than his peers, but he seems poised to step out of the shadows and into the limelight. This virtuoso, originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, trained at the Chicago Institute of Design, formerly known as the New Bauhaus. He drew inspiration from the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson, William Klein, and W. Eugene Smith, studied under Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind, and early in his career caught the attention of Edward Steichen, then director of the photography department at MoMA in New York. Over time, he made a name for himself with his avant-garde black-and-white photographs of urban landscapes, as well as his composites, photomontages, and negative superimpositions.

CREATIVE AUDACITY

The A Foundation in Brussels is hosting the second European exhibition dedicated to Metzker, following the one held in 2007 at the Musée de l'Élysée in Lausanne. This year, the Belgian institution commemorates the tenth anniversary of his death by presenting over one hundred photographs, including his most iconic series. All the black and white prints on display come from the Ray K. Metzker estate in Philadelphia and the Galerie Les Douches in Paris, which represents him exclusively in Europe.
By positioning himself against the grain of street photography, he explored the potential of urban space in a new way. Over his fifty-year career, he constantly "analyzed, deconstructed, and juxtaposed some of his photographs" to better recompose and create unique images. He played with light waves, vertical and horizontal lines, variations in scale, multiplicity, and framing.
The Loop series, taken in the late 1950s, quickly reveals his inventiveness. It takes its name from the elevated, loop-shaped subway line that runs along the historic center of the great Midwestern city. In this urban space, located in Chicago's business district, he captures "the light playing hide-and-seek with shadow between the vertiginous architectural forms." A true interplay of geometric rigor and graphic structure.
In the early 1960s, he decided to cross Europe by car, taking with him "an enlarger that allowed him to develop his films in his hotel rooms." With some fifteen countries on his itinerary, he continued his ongoing dialogue with light in scenes of everyday life.

STYLE EXERCISES

In the following years, he returned to the United States and photographed the streets of Philadelphia. In this Pennsylvania city, where his parents lived, he developed a more graphic, aesthetic and minimalist approach by assembling his images in a double exposure, through his Double Frame series.
This style foreshadows his famous Composites, which mark a turning point in his work. Here, Ray K. Metzker considers the entire film as a single image. He combines silver gelatin strips with multiple-exposure prints to create new works that can be read like graphic tapestries or playful comic strips.
With Pictus Interruptus, he traveled to Greece in the 1970s and 1980s and captured the beauty of the island of Paros, where he transformed himself "into a sculptor of two-dimensional forms," ​​tracing a new "cartography of the imagination." Through City Whispers, he continued to celebrate the city and its light, this time creating graphic structures within a single negative format, composed of multiple negatives. All of this unfolds in a play of superimposition that imbues the Philadelphia scenes with an almost existential melancholy.
Looking at his rich portfolio, one realizes that his work transcends time, maintaining this timeless approach in perfect harmony with the contemporary photographic scene.

“RAY K. METZKER – CITY LUX” FOUNDATION A
304, AVENUE VAN VOLXEM, BRUSSELS (BELGIUM)
UNTIL DECEMBER 22, 2024
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