Weegee Black and White 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
1
5
Overall Width
to
Overall Height
to
5
3
2
5
5
5
4
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
5
6
1,323
1,133
833
794
4
Artist: Weegee
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 Black and White 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 Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
$3,000 Sale Price
58% Off
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 Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Ballerina
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 Modern Weegee Black and White 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 Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Related Items
Cranston Richie
By Ralph Eugene Meatyard
Located in New York, NY
From a portfolio of ten gelatin silver prints from original Meatyard negatives (1959-71)
Printed April 1974
Edition of 130
Credit stamp, verso
7 x 7 inches, image
15 x 12 inches, mount
This photograph is offered by ClampArt, located in New York City.
“This image probably owes some of its inspiration to the abnormal characters in the stories of Flannery O’Connor’s 1955 collection, "A Good Man is Hard to Find." But Meatyard was also looking at Giorgio de Chirico and the European Surrealists and here employs their penchant for the lifeless mannequin figure. A headless dressmaker’s dummy...
Category
Late 20th Century American Modern Weegee Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Lunch Time (1955) - Giant Oversize Silver Gelatin Fibre Print
By Bert Hardy
Located in London, GB
Lunch Time (1955) - Silver Gelatin Fibre Print - Limited Estate Stamped
(Photo by Michael Webb/Getty Images)
Five British models eating lunch in their swi...
Category
1960s Modern Weegee Black and White Photography
Materials
Black and White, Silver Gelatin
Kent, England - Nude Couple on Bench, Nudists, Knitting, Man, Woman
By Elliott Erwitt
Located in Denton, TX
Kent, England, 1968
Gelatin silver print
Paper size: 20 x 24 in., Image size: 14 3/4 x 21 3/4 in.
Printed c. 1985
Signed in black ink on print margin by Elliott Erwitt
Born to Russi...
Category
1960s American Modern Weegee Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
$7,500 Sale Price
21% Off
H 20 in W 24 in D 0.07 in
Lumberjack (1939) Silver Gelatin Fibre Print - Oversized
Located in London, GB
Lumberjack (1939) Silver Gelatin Fibre Print - Oversized
(Photo by Dorothea Lange/Alamy)
An unemployed lumberjack with his wife in a migrant workers camp for the bean harvest,
Marion County, Oregon, circa 1939.
Additional Information:
Unframed
Paper Size: 30x40''
Printed Later
Silver Gelatin Fibre Print
NOTE OTHER SIZES OF THIS IMAGE AVAILABLE
10 x 12''
12 x 16''
16 x 20''
20 x 24''
20 x 30''
30 x 40''
FRAMING AVAILABLE ON REQUEST
ACTORS ON SET, Bette Davis, Ladies Fashion, LEADING LADIES, Black and White, Photography, BnW, Vintage, Retro, Classic, Wood Cutter...
Category
1930s Modern Weegee Black and White Photography
Materials
Black and White, Silver Gelatin
"Natalia Makarova " vintage "Serge Lifar " collection
Located in CANNES, FR
"Natalia Makarova " is an gelatin print , silver bromide, numbered and signed photograph
offered to " serge Lifar " by Max Waldman . Artist proof .
Ser...
Category
1970s American Modern Weegee Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
$4,585 Sale Price
48% Off
H 15.75 in W 17.72 in D 0.79 in
Kent, England - Black and White Photograph, Nude, Park, Bench, People
By Elliott Erwitt
Located in Denton, TX
Kent, England by Elliott Erwitt is a black and white photograph featuring a group of nude people standing in a park, with their backs facing the camera.
G...
Category
1960s American Modern Weegee Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
$7,500 Sale Price
21% Off
H 20 in W 24 in D 0.07 in
Nude Portrait - Silver Gelatin Fibre Print - Oversized
By H. Armstrong Roberts
Located in London, GB
Nude Portrait - Silver Gelatin Fibre Print - Oversized
(Photo by Boyan Dimitrov/Alamy)
A woman poses for a nude studio portrait.
Additional Information:
Unframed
Paper Size: 3...
Category
1960s Modern Weegee Black and White Photography
Materials
Black and White, Silver Gelatin
$1,340
H 40 in W 30 in
Sailors on the Subway from Coney Island
By Harold Feinstein
Located in Denton, TX
Edition 4/200
Signed, dated and numbered in black ink on print margin by Harold Feinstein
Harold Feinstein was born in Coney Island, New York, in 1931. He began photographing in 19...
Category
20th Century American Modern Weegee Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Rainy Time Square (1953) Silver Gelatin Fibre Print - Oversized
By H. Armstrong Roberts
Located in London, GB
Rainy Time Square (1953) Silver Gelatin Fibre Print - Oversized
(Photo by H. Armstrong Roberts/Alamy)
Two silhouetted women at bus stop under umbrellas in Time Square,
Manhattan,...
Category
1950s Modern Weegee Black and White Photography
Materials
Black and White, Silver Gelatin
Spectator Tennis (1938) Silver Gelatin Fibre Print - Oversized
By H. Armstrong Roberts
Located in London, GB
Spectator Tennis (1938) Silver Gelatin Fibre Print - Oversized
(Photo by H. Armstrong Roberts/Alamy)
1st December 1938.
Spectators watching a tennis match at a country club.
Addi...
Category
1930s Modern Weegee Black and White Photography
Materials
Black and White, Silver Gelatin
Sun Beams Into Grand Central Station (1930) - Silver Gelatin Fibre Print
Located in London, GB
Sun Beams Into Grand Central Station (1930) - Silver Gelatin Fibre Print
(Photo by Hal Morey/Getty Images)
Beams of sunlight streaming through the windows ...
Category
1930s Modern Weegee Black and White Photography
Materials
Black and White, Silver Gelatin
Shaker Interior, Sabbathday Lake, Maine
By George Tice
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Shaker Interior, Sabbathday Lake, Maine
Silver print, selenium toned, 1971
Signed in pencil lower right (see photo)
Titled verso (see photo)
Printed c. 1971
Condition: Excellent
Image: 6 1/2 x 9 3/8 inches
Frame: 14 x 17 inches
Original Kulicke welded frame
George A. Tice, born in Newark, New Jersey, United States, October 13, 1938, the son of a college-educated New Jerseyan, William S. Tice, and Margaret Robertson, a Traveller of Irish, Scottish, and Welsh stock with a fourth-grade education. George was raised by his mother, maintaining regular visiting contact with his father, whose influence and advice he valued highly.
Education
His first contact with photography was in the albums of family photographs belonging to his father, and this gave him the desire to create images of his own. George Tice began with a Kodak Brownie. In 1953, having bought a Kodak Pony, which gave him some control over exposure and focus, and a Kodak developing kit, he began to advance his craft. George Tice also joined the Carteret Camera Club. Tice's photographs of homeless men on the Bowery won second place in the black and white print competitions. George Tice decided at this point to make photography his career.
In 1955 George Tice attended the Newark Vocational and Technical High School, where he briefly studied commercial photography under Harve Wobbe. When he turned sixteen, he quit school and took a job as a darkroom assistant for Classic Photo, a portrait studio in Newark. He also worked as a stock boy at Kreske's Department Store in Newark, then as an office boy in the circulation department of the Newark Evening News.
In 1956 George Tice enlisted in the United States Navy, in which he rose to the rank of Photographer's Mate Third Class. After boot camp and two years at Naval Air Station Memphis, he was transferred to sea duty aboard the aircraft carrier, USS Wasp...
Category
1970s American Modern Weegee Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Previously Available Items
Weegee "Jackie Kennedy Distortion"
By Weegee
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Arthur Felling, better known as Weegee (1899-1968) was a highly-successful (and notorious) photojournalist. In addition to contributing an enormous number ...
Category
1960s American Modern Weegee Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Weegee "At Eddie Condon's in Greenwich Village"
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 Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Weegee "Woman Laughing, Harlem"
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 1930's 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 1940's Weegee was experiencing fatigue with crime reportage. Yet ironically it 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 Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Weegee "American Girl" Photograph, 1953
By Weegee
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Innovative, provocative, inimitable - these are just a few of the words to describe America's boldest photographer.
Arthur Felling, better known as Weege...
Category
1950s Abstract Weegee Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Bundling Bed and pillows, c.1950-60, by Weegee, gelatin silver print, stamped
By Weegee
Located in New york, NY
Bundling bed and pillows, c.1950-60, by Weegee -- paper size: 14" x 11" and image size: 13 1⁄2" x 10 5⁄8" -- is a gelatin silver print with Weegee's copyright stamp on back of photo. Weegee, who shot film using a Speed Graphic 4 x 5 camera, learned "to think fast" because he famously covered gritty news stories in New York City. The legendary photographer explained, however, his seemingly uncanny intuitive process: “… when I really see the picture is when I’ve developed the film. Then I really see what I’ve have done.”
Weegee (1899-1968) earned a reputation as a photojournalist for capturing alluring shots of people, places, and things in the urban landscape. He used the professional name Weegee because people compared him to a "Ouija board...
Category
1950s Contemporary Weegee Black and White Photography
Materials
Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin
Weegee black and white photography for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Weegee black and white photography available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Weegee in silver gelatin 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 black and white photography, so small editions measuring 5 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Eve Arnold, Barbara Morgan, and Ralph Eugene Meatyard. Weegee black and white photography prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $3,000 and tops out at $15,000, while the average work can sell for $3,600.