Ralph Mercer is a photographer and alumnus of Rhode Island School of Design where he obtained a BFA in photography and studied with Harry Callahan and Bert Beaver. Emulating their dedication and artistic imperatives, Mercer pursues the sensual and the abstract through camera manipulation and digital composite techniques. He received his MFA in visual design from the University of Massachusetts, where he studied with Dietmar Winkler and Elaine Fisher, and taught photography as a graduate teaching assistant.

 

Mercer specializes in digital photography and photo collage, creating fine art photography with an emphasis on the figurative and the landscape. The primary subject of the work is the human body. It juxtaposes the human figure with imagery captured in nature or created in the studio. Looking beyond the body’s visible exterior, his photography is both literal and symbolic striving for evocative formal elegance. Mercer explores the female body and its implied connections to the natural world and evolutionary imperatives. It is a metaphysical meditation that ponders the powerful, creative, and archetypal character of womanhood.