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WeegeeWeegee "A Trip to Mars" 1943
1943
About the Item
While many first associate Weegee (aka Arthur Fellig) with New York City crime scenes, perhaps a broader and more consistent theme is that of spectacle and/or urban entertainment.
The origins of his nick-name and reputation date back to the 1930s when he became the first New York City press photographer to obtain permission to install a police radio in his car. Following the city's first responders and documenting their duties, Weegee had unprecedented access to New York’s fires, crimes, debaucheries and of course, murders.
During the first decade of his career these unflinching urban tragedy or crime images paid Weegee's bills, but as he became more financially independent he was more inspired to pursue photographs on his own agenda. While his oeuvre is vast, Weegee was especially drawn to entertainment: nightlife, circuses, the theatre, showgirls, city thrills, the cinema etc.
Some of Weegee's most dynamic and tender (and under-appreciated!) images are related to simply having fun (in a crowd). He was not confined to one neighbourhood or demographic. He captured action, faces and events from Coney Island to the Bowery and Greenwich Village, to Times Square and Harlem.
In “A Trip To Mars,” Weegee depicts a multi-generational group crowding around a large telescope in Times Square, NYC. This image was taken at the beginning of the 1940s, just a few years before the artist would relocate to Hollywood, CA. In and around Times Square, Weegee’s influences converged.
This image presents a well-dressed group in the perennially dynamic center of New York: Times Square. Not surprisingly this was an ideal zone for Weegee as in the same block a nexus of debauchery, pop-culture figures, and raucous night life was emerging. There was no better place for the photographer, famous for zeroing in on how a variety of spectators could react to the same event or situation. Contrast the expression of anticipation and envy on the young woman's face on the far left to the look of satisfaction and amusement of the elderly lady in the center. This range of figures and emotions, is evocative of Weegee's best New York "crowd" or "entertainment" images.
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“A Trip to Mars, Times Square, New York”
Gelatin silver print
USA, circa 1943
Photographer's credit and '47th Street' stamps verso.
9.5"H 7.75"W (work)
16"H 14.5"W (framed)
Detailed condition report upon request.
- Creator:Weegee (1899-1968, American)
- Creation Year:1943
- Dimensions:Height: 16 in (40.64 cm)Width: 14.5 in (36.83 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Toronto, CA
- Reference Number:
Weegee
Arthur Fellig, who later assumed the pseudonym Weegee, was a photographer and photojournalist, best known for his gritty black-and-white imagery taken on the streets of New York City. Born in 1899 in what is now the Ukraine, he arrived in the United States with his family in 1909, and settled in Brooklyn. After working in a variety of photography-related jobs, he struck out on his own at the age of 35 as a self-taught freelance photographer, selling his work to publications like the Herald Tribune, the Daily News, the Post, and the Sun. Weegee worked mostly at night, usually around Manhattan Police Headquarters. He was the only freelancer in New York to obtain permission to install a police radio in his car. As a result, he was often the first to arrive at the scene of the many crimes he photographed, often before the police themselves had responded. Moreover, he traveled with a makeshift darkroom in the trunk of his car, so he could produce, and then sell, his images faster than his competitors. But crime was not his only subject. He also photographed socialites at high-society events, circus performers, street life, tenement housing conditions, and many other facets of New York life. For a number of years he traveled extensively in Europe, and worked for the London Daily Mirror. He later returned to New York City, where he died in 1968. Th Museum of Modern Art began collecting his work in 1943, and featured it in several exhibitions. His work was also shown at the New York Photo League, and the International Center of Photography hosted a retrospective of his work in 1998. He has been featured in exhibitions at European venues such as the Kunsthalle Vienna, Austria's Flatz Museum, and the Multimedia Art Museum in Moscow. Several monographs of his work have been published.
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