Ray K. Metzker, a Philadelphian since 1962, is one of the great contemporary experimenters with form and aesthetics in photography. Composites: Philadelphia, of 1964, is the first of a series in which he explores the synthesis of multiple visual elements expanded beyond the single-frame photograph. This work is made from forty-nine two-by-two-inch prints of sailors, printed to different densities, that are mounted in a square grid to form a graphic pattern of receding and advancing darks and lights, like a coded message of signal flags. The composition resonates with references to the photographic studies of sequential motion carried out in the late nineteenth century in Philadelphia by Eadweard Muybridge and Thomas Eakins, a legacy that has provided a rich vein of inspiration for Metzker. Many other photographers have in turn been inspired by Metzker's translation of these scientific experiments into works of art. Martha Chahroudi, from Philadelphia Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections (1995), p. 248.