Weegee Photography
American, 1899-1968
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.to
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Artist: Weegee
Afternoon Crowd at Coney Island
By Weegee
Located in New York, NY
This photograph by Weegee is offered by CLAMP in New York City.
Edition of 70.
Category
2010s Contemporary Weegee Photography
Materials
Archival Pigment
Weegee "Sailor and Girl Kissing"
By Weegee
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Weegee (1899-1968) was equally fascinated and inspired by cinema and all of its tangents, from Hollywood movie stars to ordinary civilians going to the movies. While Weegee is typically associated with crime/disaster images, the broad theme of "entertainment" is a major component of his oeuvre.
An interesting and provocative sub-genre of his cinema-related work are his images of couples (often heavy-petting) in movie theatres.
Recent scholarship has established that many of Weegee's supposed clandestine images were actually staged or arranged with friends or co-operative strangers.
Nevertheless, Weegee created these photographs in the dark with an array of clever techniques including infrared film, filtered flashbulb and triangular prism lens. Employed in shots such as this one, the prism lens would allow the artist to “see around corners,” useful at times when his subjects were in compromising locations.
These images of kissing couples, Weegee wrote in 1959, were “his best seller, year in and year out.”
"Sailor and GIrl at the Movies...
Category
1940s American Modern Weegee Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Weegee "A Trip to Mars"
By Weegee
Located in Toronto, Ontario
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...
Category
1940s American Modern Weegee Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Weegee "Distortion: Stripes"
By Weegee
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Innovative, provocative, inimitable - these are just a few of the words to describe America's boldest photographer.
Arthur Fellig, better known as Weegee (1899-1968) was a ground-breaking, successful (and notorious) photojournalist. His images shot on the streets of New York City are iconic and influential.
In the 1930s he became the first New York City press photographer to obtain permission to install a police radio in his car. This allowed him to follow the city's first responders and to document their duties; responding to fire, crime, debauchery and of course, murder.
By the early 1940s Weegee was experiencing fatigue with crime reportage. Ironically, this was also the point when he finally began experiencing professional validation and acclaim, to the point of being a minor celebrity. Notably in 1941 he was included in The MoMA's seminal "50 Photographs by 50 Photographers" (curated by Edward Steichen). The museum would also acquire five Weegee photographs...
Category
1940s American Modern Weegee Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
$3,000 Sale Price
58% Off
Big Ben, London
By Weegee
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Arthur Felling, better known as Weegee (1899-1968) was America's premiere photojournalist and one of the 20th century's most influential photographers.
He would become famous--beyon...
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1960s Street Art Weegee Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Waterski Jumper
By Weegee
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Arthur Felling, better known as Weegee (1899-1968) is America's premiere photojournalist and one of the last century's most influential photographers.
He would become famous, beyond...
Category
1950s American Modern Weegee Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
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He would become famous, beyond New York and news circles, after the publication of his photo books Naked City (1945) and Weegee's People (1946).
Weegee's images of New York City crime, disaster and tragedy are iconic and highly influential. Less well-known, however, is the work he focused on during the last twenty years of his life: known as the 'distortions' period. In the late 1940s, Weegee began experimenting with photographic manipulation both in the darkroom and using an array of filters on his camera.
Weegee created distortions of a wide range of subjects; celebrities, architecture, circus life, and nudes.
In this evocative distortion, the photograph has been split directly down the centre and reflected. It's impossible to tell which side of the image is the original and which side is the reflection.
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Weegee photography for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Weegee photography available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Weegee in silver gelatin print, archival pigment print, pigment print and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the modern style. Not every interior allows for large Weegee photography, so small editions measuring 5 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Dan Budnik, Marion Post Wolcott, and Robert Mapplethorpe. Weegee photography prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $938 and tops out at $15,000, while the average work can sell for $3,550.