Speed Graphic wielding, cigar chomping, not looking anything like Joe Pesci, the photographer Weegee is Diane Arbus' long lost uncle, kindred spirit, hero, or all three. If you're a Weegee fan, distant relative or kindred spirit, you might want to get yourself to the ICP www.icp.org to check out the "Unknown Weegee", an exhibit of previously unexhibited or little published work, before it ends August 27.
If you're not familiar with Weegee, born Usher Fellig, aka Arthur Fellig, do not see this exhibit until you get some background and see his winners first:
http://museum.icp.org/museum/collections/special/weegee/
Probably my favorite Weegee is "Just Add Boiling Water". That's what it says on the side of the building being doused by fire hoses.
http://www.amber-online.com/gallery/exhibition46/index.html (click on the image on the right).
I've never heard him speak. Here's a link to an audio interview:
http://www.soundportraits.org/on-air/weegee/ No offence Mr. Pesci, I do appreciate that there's now a movie about him, but you don't sound like Weegee either. And speaking of movies, today I learned that Weegee was a consultant to film director and kindred spirit Stanley Kubrick for the making of "Dr. Strangelove", one of my all time favorites.
If you'd like to see a beautifully printed signed first edition of Weegee's "Naked City", buy me lunch! I have it, given to me by my friend Amy Hanan who knew Weegee when she was a copyboy at the NY Post. She'd accompany Weegee on shoots, delivering plates to the newspaper, then at 75 West street. It's dedicated "TO YOU THE PEOPLE OF NEW YORK" and continues signed "& Amy Hanan, You Too can be a Weegee, 1945"
My prize possession. Don't forget, you buy lunch, you see the book. I'll bring the white gloves.
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1 comment:
Thanks for the heads up. Yeah, the Times gives Weegee too much credit for what he might have "wrought". Weegee "turned America into a nation of gawkers"? How could that be? They were already there, in Weegee's pictures!
Weegee just showed us what we already were. One Nation Under Gawkers. We have reality shows and tabloid newspapers because zoos and freak shows fell out of fashion. Nah, Weegee was a documentary photographer with an edgy editorial gift for capturing the gritty spirit of New York City.
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