Weegee

Description

This definitive monograph on the enigmatic and eccentric photographer Weegee is a collector’s item in itself. Weegee (1899-1968), known for his harrowing and poignant photographs of crime scenes in 1930s and 40s New York, is considered to be the archetypal tabloid photographer of the twentieth century.

Preferring to photograph under the cover of night, Weegee was known for his aggressive use of flash and his photographic eye was unstoppable: drawn to the grotesque, the illicit and the illegal. Named after the ‘Ouija’ board for his uncanny ability to arrive at the crime scene before the police, Weegee recorded the dark side of New York’s streets for years, becoming a prolific photographer. No sordid crime seemed to escape his flash and no crime was too gruesome to capture on camera for the papers the next day.

Weegee’s nuanced understanding of people’s simultaneous repulsion and attraction to vivid photographs of crimes of passion, murder and brutal accidents reveals him to have been far ahead of his time. Even today his photographs tirelessly retain the power to stun and to seduce: the originality of the images has elevated them in importance far beyond their use in the newspapers.

Kerry William Purcell is a writer, lecturer and freelance picture editor. A former archivist at The Photographers’ Gallery in London, he has written widely on film and photography. His previous publications include Phaidon’s Alexey Brodovitch (2002).

‘When Weegee started out he was considered a tabloid photographer, someone out there taking lurid, disgusting shots that were not for ‘nice’ people. And now today he is considered an artist, or at least an art photographer. But more importantly he recorded the times, the scene, the New York City he saw around him, the five boroughs. He captured not just death and disaster – concepts which would later entrance everyone from Andy Warhol to Damien Hirst – but people, places, buildings, that otherwise would indeed have vanished for ever.’ (Tana Jamowitz, author of The Slaves of New York, Independent)

‘Presented beautifully.'(British Journal of Photography)'[A] bawdy collection packed with murderers and corpses, overweight cabaret stars too gaudily made-up, and tatooed joes lolling on the beach. Weegee’s pictures have an urgency that far outlives the tabloids in which they first appeared.’ (Daily Telegraph)’A great introduction to the Weegee world.’ (Guardian)

Additional information

Dimensions	0.625 × 8.5 × 9.75 in
Series	55s
Imprint	Phaidon Press
Format	General Trade
ISBN-13	09780714842240
ISBN-10	0714842249
Audience	General / adult
Author	Kerry William Purcell, Getty Getty Images