10-31-2010, 09:37 PM
I thought it'd be nice to start a series of threads dedicated to our favourite photographers - just about the images and aesthetics.
The first on my list would an American called Ray K Metzker (born 1931). There's comparatively little info on this photographer, but you can find a lot of images if you use google images and search his name. I first discovered his work in a book belonging to a friend, but most of his publications are now incredibly expensive to buy.
Metzker shoots black and white film, and most of his early work was urban photography featuring workers, passers-by and of course city architecture (usually as a backdrop).
He makes incredible use of available light, very often reducing shadow areas to huge blocks of deep black, and creating forms simply through the interplay of light and shadow.
What I personally admire about Metzker's street photography is his ability to take a seemingly banal or uneventful scene, and turn it into something that is purely aesthetic/artistic on one level just by waiting for the right light. Some of his images do indeed tell a story, but many of them are just inviting the viewer to imagine his own narrative to the scene - though Metzker manages this without resorting so any staging or effects (except, arguably, his darkroom technique).
It took me many years to realize how many hours and how much practice is required to produce images like Metzker's, and for this reason I'd have to say he's one of my favourite street photographers.
Please add some of your own faves/role models. <img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='
' />
The first on my list would an American called Ray K Metzker (born 1931). There's comparatively little info on this photographer, but you can find a lot of images if you use google images and search his name. I first discovered his work in a book belonging to a friend, but most of his publications are now incredibly expensive to buy.
Metzker shoots black and white film, and most of his early work was urban photography featuring workers, passers-by and of course city architecture (usually as a backdrop).
He makes incredible use of available light, very often reducing shadow areas to huge blocks of deep black, and creating forms simply through the interplay of light and shadow.
What I personally admire about Metzker's street photography is his ability to take a seemingly banal or uneventful scene, and turn it into something that is purely aesthetic/artistic on one level just by waiting for the right light. Some of his images do indeed tell a story, but many of them are just inviting the viewer to imagine his own narrative to the scene - though Metzker manages this without resorting so any staging or effects (except, arguably, his darkroom technique).
It took me many years to realize how many hours and how much practice is required to produce images like Metzker's, and for this reason I'd have to say he's one of my favourite street photographers.
Please add some of your own faves/role models. <img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='
' />