On making Metro, Raucher comments: “… As individuals interact with one another in these tightly packed public spaces, occasionally extraordinary situations that are unexpected, mysterious, humorous or poignant unfold. A strange or wonderful juxtaposition, a spontaneous gesture, a concealed mood or a hidden emotion may materialize and then vanish in a split-second …”
During the past eight years, Stan Raucher has spent countless hours riding and photographing on metro systems around the world. His candid photos capture ordinary people, from elderly couples and mothers with children to young lovers, friends and workers, going about their daily lives as they pass through the crush of this subterranean realm traveling to and from work and other destinations. Metro provides an intimate glimpse into the variety of human emotions and interactions that occur on this most democratic of urban stages. These evocative, richly layered duotone images reminiscent of still photos from a movie or play are gathered together in Raucher’s new monograph Metro.
Raucher took the photographs in Metro between 2007 and 2014 during numerous trips he made to fifteen cities on four continents. With the relentless dedication required to complete such an ambitious project, he captures the metro systems of New York City, Mexico City, San Francisco, Paris, Budapest, Naples, London, Warsaw, Rome, Prague, Vienna, São Paulo, Lima, Delhi, and Shanghai. Each scene in Metro invites the viewer to contemplate the situation and generate a personal narrative that reflects the universal thread that connects all humanity, as well as characteristics that are unique to each culture and location.
Raucher grew up viewing black-and-white movies and television, Life magazine photo documentries and The Family of Man, and he chose to embrace this aesthetic in his own work. Ed Kashi writes: “The richness and depth of his black and-white photography add an important element to this work. It enhances the emotional content and forces the viewer to dwell that much longer to absorb the textures of the scenes he has so adeptly captured.”
When photographing his subjects up close on the metro, Raucher tries to be as discreet and unobtrusive as possible, but discovers that in many instances people are in their own private worlds and don’t even notice him. At a time when fewer of the images that we see on a routine basis are honest representations of real life, these photos open a window to the world that surrounds us here and now.
BOOK
Metro, Scene from an Urban Stage
Stan Raucher
Foreword by Ed Kashi and Essay by Marlaine Glicksman
Daylight Books
Hardcover, 17.7 x 25.4 cm
112 Pages. 60 color>
ISBN: 9781942084051
daylight books.org
http://stanraucher.com
