Ray K. Metzker (September 10, 1931 – October 9, 2014) was an American photographer known chiefly for his stark, experimental Black and White cityscapes and for his large assemblages of printed film strips and single frames, known as Composites.

[4] He received awards including the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation,[5] National Endowment for the Arts[6][7] and Royal Photographic Society.

[10] Metzker loved classical music, history and drawing,[3] but his passion for photography was cemented when his mother gave him a camera at age 12.

"[10] Metzker would develop photographs in his bedrooom, winning numerous high school competitions sponsored by Eastman Kodak.

After graduate studies at the Institute of Design in Chicago, Metzker travelled extensively throughout Europe in 1960-61, where he had two epiphanies: that "light" would be his primary subject, and that he would seek synthesis and complexity over simplicity.