Ray Metzker Quotes

The collection of photographs is a statement about the relationship of my camera and me.

I don't need exotic places to be stimulated. Out of familiarity comes nuance. The more you revisit a subject the more you're like to discover.

I am not an objective reporter. I prefer to go further, to the unstated things of our existence. What I can't understand and grasp seems to lead me.

Why one picture stands out among many others is always a mystery. In the beginning the subject is never quite known, but in the course of working something shows up on the film or in the print that speaks to me. I can never predict when this will happen. However, when it does there is an excitement - there is the ecstasy of recognition. And this is one of the things that keeps me going.

Photographers are victims of paradox, tracking the impermanent to make it permanent.

What appears in the pictures was the subject's decision, not mine. I took what they presented - delicate moments - unadorned and unglamorous, yet tender and exquisite.

I never wanted to make portraits - to photograph celebrities, beautiful people, beautiful landscapes, beautiful buildings, or people in distressing situations.... I have always been interested in everyman - average, ordinary people in everyday situations.

A lot of my work is about is about events, but I also think a lot of my work is about fragmentation.... You have to break something down in order to have the parts synthesize.