7.26.2006
Sneaky Weegee Shots
For a truly unruly picture of midcentury New York, have a look at this CBC photo essay highlighting the Weegee exhibit running at New York’s International Center of Photography. The exhibit and the essay self-consciously examine the lesser-known stylings of a guy who became famous for a very specific type of photo: "Today Weegee is best known for his shots of criminals and corpses — he estimated he photographed 5,000 murder scenes during his life — but his interests reached far beyond that. His body of work is marked by a deep concern for the poor and immigrant classes; even gangsters come across looking sheepish and knocked-about."
In spite of, or likely because of, his lack of training, Weegee (a.k.a. Arthur Fellig) took stark, gritty shots that underscored the most naked of emotions. He was known to turn his camera on the crowd at crime scenes: "sometimes drawn there by some power I can’t explain, and I caught New Yorkers with their masks off ... not afraid to laugh, cry, or make love. What I felt, I photographed, laughing and crying with them." People sans masks -- if only that were the regular state of things.
Not all of his subjects, however, were treated with such compassion: "He seemed to like everybody except for New York’s high society; sometimes he used special lights to bring out rich people’s wrinkles and dental problems." Those poor, poor rich. All they want to do is live a fabulous life and eat the meek. Still, I wonder if in exposing high society's fault lines, Weegee didn't accidentally humanize it. Perhaps that was the point, though his intentions seem somewhat more vicious.
