Ray K. Metzker
[In] Metzker's early 1980's series City Whispers [...] anonymous urban dwellers glide through contrasting beams of brilliant light and impenetrable shadow. His 1983 image from Philadelphia of a walking man followed closely by a woman, adjacent but never together, demonstrates Metzker's exquisite ability to caress with light while dividing with shadow.
In City Whispers, people often sit, stand and move in areas of extreme light and extreme darkness. Often Metzker will use light to barely illuminate a figure in the darkness, much the way a cinematographer like John Alton would create a film noir. Other times, a group of riders waiting for a bus will stand near an awning and be completely bathed in a square of light, as though they were on a stage. Even in groups, Metzker’s Philadelphians are isolated, remote, sculptural figures.
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