Weegee photograph, The Critic, November 22, 1943, first published in LIFE Magazine, December 6, 1943.

Weegee was the pseudonym of Arthur Fellig (June 12, 1899 - December 26, 1968), an American photographer and photojournalist, known for his stark black and white street photography. Image File history File linksMetadata Weegee. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Weegee. ... A pseudonym (Greek pseudo + -onym: false name) is an artificial, fictitious name, also known as an alias, used by an individual as an alternative to a persons true name. ... is the 163rd day of the year (164th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1899 (MDCCCXCIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday [1] of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... December 26 is the 360th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar, 361st in leap years. ... Year 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar) of the 1968 Gregorian calendar. ... Photography [fәtɑgrәfi:],[foʊtɑgrәfi:] is the process of recording pictures by means of capturing light on a light-sensitive medium, such as a film or sensor. ... Assault landing One of the first waves at Omaha Beach as photographed by Robert F. Sargent. ... This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ...

Early life

Weegee was born Usher Fellig in Złoczew, near Lemberg, Austrian-Galicia (later known as Złoczów, Poland, and now Zolochiv, Ukraine). His name was changed to Arthur when he came with his family to live in New York in 1909, fleeing antisemitism. Motto: Semper fidelis Location Map of Ukraine with Lviv. ... Coat-of-arms of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria Galicia (Ukrainian: , Polish: , Russian: , German: , Hungarian: , Czech: , Yiddish: , Turkish: , Romanian: ) is a historical region in East Central Europe, currently divided between Poland and Ukraine. ... Zolochiv (Ukrainian: ; Polish: ; Russian: , translit. ... Antisemitism (alternatively spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is discrimination, hostility or prejudice directed at Jews[1] as a religious, racial, or ethnic group. ...

Photography career

Fellig's nickname was a phonetic rendering of Ouija, due to his frequent arrival at scenes only minutes after crimes, fires or other emergencies were reported to authorities. He is variously said to have named himself Weegee, or to have been named by either the girls at Acme or by a police officer. // A nickname is a name of a person or thing other than its proper name. ... Phonetic (pho-NET-ic) is a nationwide voicemail-to-text messaging service available for most digital mobile phones in which a subscriber is provided a custom voice mailbox for the purpose of receiving all incoming voice messages as actual transcribed text for reading via short messaging (also known as SMS... For the photographer, see Weegee. ...

He is best known as a candid news photographer whose stark black-and-white shots documented street life in New York City. Weegee's photos of crime scenes, car-wreck victims in pools of their own blood, overcrowded urban beaches and various grotesques are still shocking, though some, like the juxtaposition of society grandes dames in ermines and tiaras and a glowering street woman before the first night of the Metropolitan Opera, (The Critic, 1943), turn out to have been staged.^{[citation needed]} New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ... The Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, seen from Lincoln Center Plaza A full house at the old Metropolitan Opera House, seen from the rear of the stage, at the Metropolitan Opera House for a concert by pianist Józef Hofmann, November 28, 1937. ...

In 1938, Fellig was the only New York newspaper reporter with a permit to have a portable police-band shortwave radio. He maintained a complete darkroom in his trunk of his car, to expedite getting his free-lance product to the newspapers. Weegee worked mostly at night; he listened closely to broadcasts and often beat authorities to the scene. Year 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Most of his notable photographs were taken with very basic press photographer equipment and methods of the era, a 4x5 Speed Graphic camera preset at f/16, @ 1/200 of a second with flashbulbs and a set focal length of ten feet. He had no formal photographic training but was a self-taught photographer and relentless self-promoter. He is sometimes said not to have had any knowledge of the New York art photography scene; but in 1943 the Museum of Modern Art included several of his photos in an exhibition. He was later included in another MoMA show organized by Edward Steichen, and he lectured at the New School for Social Research. He also undertook advertising and editorial assignments for Life and Vogue magazines, among others. Produced by Graflex in Rochester, the Speed Graphic is commonly called the most famous press camera. ... View across garden, in new MoMA building by Yoshio Taniguchi. ... Edward Steichen (March 27, 1879-March 25, 1973) was an American photographer, painter, and art gallery and museum curator, born in Luxembourg. ... New School University is an institute of higher learning in New York City. ... A cover of Life Magazine from 1911 Life has been the name of two notable magazines published in the United States. ... For other meanings, see vogue. ...

His acclaimed first book collection of photographs, Naked City (1945), became the inspiration for a major 1948 movie The Naked City, and later the title of a pioneering realistic television police drama series. 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar). ... The Naked City is a 1948 black-and-white film noir directed by Jules Dassin. ...

Weegee also made short 16mm films beginning in 1941 and worked with and in Hollywood from 1946 to the early 1960s, both as an actor and a consultant. In 1958, he was an uncredited special effects consultant and credited still photographer for Stanley Kubrick's film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. His accent was one of the influences for the accent of the title character in the film, played by Peter Sellers. 16 mm film was initially created in the 1920s as an inexpensive amateur alternative to the conventional 35 mm film format. ... ... Stanley Kubrick (July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an influential and acclaimed American film director and producer. ... For the hit 1987 single by Depeche Mode, see the album Music for the Masses Film poster for Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is a 1964 satirical film directed by Stanley Kubrick. ... Richard Henry Peter Sellers, CBE (8 September 1925 – 24 July 1980) was an English comedian, actor, and performer, who came to prominence on the BBC radio series The Goon Show and later became a film star. ...

In the 1950s and 60s, Weegee experimented with panoramic photographs, photo distortions and photography through prisms. He also traveled widely in Europe in the 1960s, and took advantage of the liberal atmosphere in Europe to photograph nude subjects.

Legacy

A 1992 motion picture, The Public Eye, starred Joe Pesci as a 1940s tabloid photographer who has a police radio in his car. TV Guide states that Pesci's character is "based, of course, on Weegee" and IMDb trivia notes state that some of Fellig's photographs are shown in the film (as having been taken by Pesci's character) [1]. Jude Law also portrayed a crime scene photographer based on Fellig in the 2002 film Road to Perdition, though he is also characterized as an assassin in this film. Again some of Fellig's photographs were used in the film [2]. Year 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1992 Gregorian calendar). ... The Public Eye is a neo-noir film directed by Howard Franklin. ... Joseph Francesco DeLores Eliot Pesci (born February 9, 1943), best known as Joe Pesci, is an American Academy Award-winning actor, comedian and singer who is often typecast as a violent mobster, mafia thug, or a grouchy funnyman. ... David Jude Heyworth Law (born December 29, 1972) is an Academy Award-nominated English actor. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... Road to Perdition is a graphic novel written by Max Allan Collins and illustrated by Richard Piers Rayner that was made into a motion picture of the same name in 2002. ...

Fellig is also referred to in an episode of The X-Files in which Agent Dana Scully (played by Gillian Anderson) is assigned to work with a crime scene photographer named Alfred Fellig whose subjects may in fact be his victims. The X-Files is a Peabody- and Emmy Award-winning science fiction television series created by Chris Carter, which first aired on September 10, 1993, and ended on May 19, 2002. ... Gillian Leigh Anderson (born August 9, 1968) is an Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning American actress, best known for her roles as FBI Agent Dana Scully in the American TV series The X-Files and Lady Dedlock in the BBC TV series Bleak House. ...

The International Center of Photography mounted an exhibit of 95 Weegee photos June 9 - August 27, 2006, titled "Unknown Weegee." Founded in 1974, the International Center for Photography is located in Midtown Manhattan in New York City (United States). ...

George Michael's second solo album Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 features a Weegee photo on the cover. George Michael (born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou (Greek: Γιώργος-Κυριάκος Παναγιώτου) on June 25, 1963) is an English [1] singer-songwriter and pop star who performs soul influenced pop, and who (as a solo artist and half of the duo WHAM!) has enjoyed global success since 1982. ... Listen Without Prejudice Vol. ...

John Zorn's band Naked City features a Weegee photo on its debut self titled album John Zorn (born September 2, 1953 in Queens, USA) is a Jewish American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. ... This article is about the band. ...

The music video for the Ned's Atomic Dustbin song Intact is dedicated to Weegee. Neds Atomic Dustbin is a British Grebo rock band that formed in Stourbridge in West Midlands, England in November 1987. ...

Further reading

• Weegee by Weegee (1961, autobiography)
• Miles Barth, Weegee's World
• Kerry William Purcell, Weegee (Phaidon, 2004)

External links

• 'Unknown Weegee,' on Photographer Who Made the Night Noir
• Weegee's World: Life, Death and the Human Drama
• Weegee Photographs
• More Weegee Photographs
• Weegee Working Out of his Car Trunk
• Arthur 'Weegee' Fellig at the Internet Movie Database