photography essay: by Taylor Wade (photos above)

In the style of a photographic mentor (unit 5- AWQ 3O1- Zanini)

Photographer- Weegee

Weegee was the false name of Arthur Felling. Weegee was born on June 12 1899 and died on December 26, 1968. In Weegee’s life he was a photographer and a photojournalist he was known for his stark black and white street photography.

In the 30’s and 40’s Weegee worked in the lower east side of New York City as a press photographer.  Weegee started following the city’s emergency services and documenting their activity, this later became his signature for the time period. Most of his work showed the brutal images of the city’s crime, urban life, injury and death. In 1943 five photographs of Weegee’s work was showed in the Museum of Modern Art. The exhibition in the Museum was called “Action Photography”. Later on Weegee was included in another Museum of Modern Art exhibition organized by Edward Steichen. Then after Weegee lectured at the New School for Social Research.

In 1945 Weegee published his first book of photographs called Naked City. After the book was published film producer Mark Hellinger bought the title of the book from Weegee. Then in 1948 Mark Hellinger released a film called “The Naked City”. The story was about this the investigation of a models murder in New York.  The movie ended up getting nominated for an Academy Award.

In the 1950’s and 60’s Weegee started fiddling with panoramic photographs, photo distortions and photography through prisms. He started using a plastic lens. He ended up taking a famous photograph of Marilyn Monroe and in the picture her face is so distorted yet you still know that it’s her.  After Weegee died his widow Wilma Wilcox, Sidney Kaplan, Aaron Rose and Larry Silver formed “The Weegee Portfolio Incorporated” to create an exclusive collection of photographic prints made from Weegee’s original negatives. After the portfolio was formed Wilma Wilcox donated the entire Weegee archive to the International Center of Photography in New York. This 1993 gift became the source for many exhibitions and books including "Weegee's World" (1997) and "Unknown Weegee"  (2006).

Weegee’s work had a huge impact on the photography world. Weegee did a lot of work with action shots, which meant fixing the shutter speed and the aperture. But he also did a lot of work with making the pictures look real, like real life pictures. The pictures that Weegee took were pictures of the bad parts of New York.   Weegee like any artist did what he wanted to do and he did whatever he had to do to get there, he even had a police radio in his car.

I think Weegee had a significant impact on other photographs because I think was trying to inspire other photographers to take pictures of real life. I think he was showing society that bad parts and some of those bad things that people do in this world. None of his pictures were cookie cutter. They were all hardcore and to the point. But not all of his pictures were like that. Some of his photos were normal people doing normal things like going to the bar and meeting people, people singing in clubs and coffee houses or he would take pictures of people kissing in the movies. 

I also think that Weegee is an inspiration to photography because he experimented a lot with his pictures. In the beginning he started off with stark black and white street photography and as the years went on he started taking pictures of famous actresses like Marilyn Monroe and working with plastic lens. Weegee’s experimentation and his ability to try new things make his work very significant because he never stopped at just one idea.