Snapshot: Weegee By Weegee
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Arthur Fellig’s pseudonym was Weegee (he preferred “Weegee the Famous”) because of his Ouija-like instinct for finding mayhem. He sat in his car with a short-wave police radio, speeding off to photograph dead bodies, crowded crime scenes and mob bosses in cuffs, all lit white from his camera flash.
Weegee’s beach photos are cheerier than his famous crime scenes but share a sense of live, wheeling human spectacle, like sweatier, grittier Where’s Wally tableaux. For “Coney Island Beach”, the tabloid photographer climbed up as high as he could, screaming and dancing until a crowd gathered to stare.
‘Weegee By Weegee’, Fundación Foto Colectania in Barcelona from July 5. fotocolectania.org
Photographs: Weegee / International Center of Photography / Courtesy of Colección M. + M. Auer
Comments