Weegee the Famousand film noir

Photographer unknown.Portrait of Weegee (ArthurFellig), c.1956 Inscribed onimage: "To all mySubjects, Weegee."

Photographer unknown.Weegee's parents - Racheland Bernard Fellig, c. 1920s

Time Line- Born June 12,1899

- Left for the United States in 1906

- 1910 Bernard sends for his wife and fourchildren

- 1914 Arthur Fellig leaves his familyhome

- 1917 Fellig Hired by Ducket & Adler PhotoStudio

- 1921 Fellig began to work at the New YorkTimes

- 1927 began his employment at Acme Pictures

- 1935 Weegee becomes a freelancephotographer

- 1938 Weegee becomes the first civilian with a policeradio

Photographer unknown.Weegee at his typewriter inthe trunk of his 1938'Chevy,' c.1943 pgwny334

- 1940 PM Daily was created by RalphIngrersoll

- 1944 exhibition in “Art in Progress”, Museum of Modern Art

- 1946 Publication of Naked City

Prohibition from 1920-1933

Rise in crime syndicates

The Great Depressionspanning from 1929 intothe early 1940’s

An unemployment ratedipping to 23.6% in 1932

High immigrant densityin New York Lower EastSide

Major divid betweenworking class and thewealthy/elite

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Year Rate

1920 5.2%

1920 4.2

1920 8.7

1932 23.6

1934 21.7

1936 16.9

1938 19.0

1940 14.6

1942 4.7%

1944 1.2

1946 3.9

1948 3.8

1950 5.3

Unemployment Rate

Political and Economical Climate

Photo courtesy of the New York Public Library/Humanities and Social SciencesLibrary / Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local

History and Genealogy.

East side tenement building,New York, New York, 1927

NEW YORK CITY, 1940 -- A father and son wave Americanflags at a parade in Chinatown.

Coney Island (Sewing Pants)- 1960Children Sleeping ona fires escape 1941

“Weegee also exposed the terrible disorder and chaos of life for the poor”pg 10WNY

Fire in Harlem- her kids are still in theburning building- 1942

The clothing has been saved- 1943

On the Toilet- 1941

“No other art from rivals photography’s capacity to be meaningless, to toppleinto a void. As a hedge against vacuity, ambitious photographers cloak

themselves in a knowledge of art. But Weegee was an innocent, a primitive whodescribes strong emotions and guilelessly jabbed at ours” (Coplans 7).

The Critic- 1943

OppressivePessimism

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Suspicion

the human conditionDingy

Futilitydefeat Entrapment

Melancholy

Alienation

Fatalismbleakness

Disillusionment ParanoiaCorruption

disenchantmentMoral Ambiguity

Evilguilt Desperation

cynicism

dark

sadistic disorienting

Juxtaposing

gloomy

Claustrophobic

jarring

Rain

mean streets

murder

Night has a Thousand Eyes- 1948 Car Crash Upper Fifth Ave- July 13th, 1941

- The focus point

- Confinement

- Framing

- Positioning

- Reflection - Spectators eyes

He Ran All the Way- 1951 Mother and child in Harlem- 1939

Their First Murder- October 9, 1941 Cornell Woolrich’s Deadline at Dawn

“Weegee had aesthetic predilection for artificial light. Heliked the way in which an object is highlighted and flattened

by a freeze action of flash, and slowly dissolves into asaturated black background. He called this ‘Rembrandtlight’. This effect is only partly due to his equipment.”

-Weegee’s New York

- Shadows

- Bars “Cooler”- 1942

- LinesCitizen Kane- 1941

Hole where plane (B-25) hit Empire State Building- 1945 Dead man in a restaurant

EndCouple in Voodoo Trance- 1956