The exhibition “Weegee, Autopsy of the Spectacle” presented by the Parisian Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation offers a new understanding of the photographic work of Weegee, born Arthur Fellig.
Weegee covering the morning line-up at the police headquarters, circa 1939
World renowned for his pictures of a nocturnal and violent New York taken between 1935 and 1947, Weegee is often poorly known – even despised – for the burlesque and caricatural photos that he took in Los Angeles from 1948.
His two types of work seem irreconcilable. However, they illustrate the evolution of an artist tired of the darkness and harshness of the New York jungle and who is moving towards lightness. They also illustrate the evolution of a country which experienced the Crash of 1929, the Great Depression, Prohibition and WWII and which flourishes at the end of the war in the American way of life and the entertainment society whose epicenter is Hollywood.
Chapter I – New York
Born in 1899 in Galicia – now in Ukraine – Arthur Fellig joins his father who lives in New York at the age of 10. Installed in the poor neighborhood of the Lower East Side, he leaves school at 14 and quickly becomes a photographer. From 1935, he becomes self-employed as a photojournalist. He takes pictures of the nocturnal and violent New York, always the first to arrive at the scenes of crimes, arrests, accidents and fires – which earns him the nickname Weegee – a distortion of the name of the spirit game of “ouija”. He is actually connected to the city’s police radio and is informed in real time, which allows him to stay ahead of his competitors.
My studio: a patrol wagon, circa 1938
His New York photographs perfectly respond, frozen on paper, to the film noir cinematic movement which develops on the West Coast of the country.
Body of Andrew Izzo, killed by off-duty policeman Elegio Sarro, 1942
Chalk outline, 1942
Body of Dominic Didato, 1936
Nurse Irma Twiss Epstein, accused of killing a baby, 1942
Charles Sodokoff and Arthur Webber use their top hats to hide their faces, 1942
Young man smoking cigarette in crashed car waiting for ambulance, 1941
Man arrested for cross-dressing, 1939
Frank Pape, arrested for strangling boy to death, 1944
Henry Rosen and Harvey Stemmer arrested for bribing Brooklyn college basketball players, 1945
Simply add boiling water, 1943
Fire in loft building, 1947
His photographs also illustrate the plight of the poor and people of color, who try to survive in a fractured and racist society. Even if Weegee is not an activist, his social origins, his association with the Photo League – a group of independent photographers who campaign for social justice, and the PM Daily – a New York newpaper with progressive ideas, will have probably sharpened a left-wing political consciousness which is reflected in his photographic work.
Peedler with dangling dry goods, 1940
Mrs Bernice Lythcott and son Leonard looking through window shattered by rock-throwing hoodlums, 1943
Class issues represent an overwhelming percentage of Weegee’s photographs”
Lucy Sante, artist
For example, he documents the stratagems that the poor classes put in place to escape the heat of the city by sleeping on fire staircases – or who, for lack of means to go on vacation – have fun with the fire hydrants of the city, transformed into fountains.
Tenement sleeping during heat spell, 1941
Afternoon crowd at Coney Island, 1940
He also photographs the spectacle society that is emerging: crime or accident scenes often include spectators and ambient voyeurism.
Harry Maxwell shot in a car, 1941
Drowning victim, 1940
Police and onlookers with body of Joseph “Little Joe” La Cava, killed during the feast of San Gennaro, 1939
Balcony seats at a murder, 1939
In 1945, Weegee publishes “Naked City,” in which he brings together his best photographs. The book is a real success – but that is the moment when the now famous photographer decides to leave the East coast for Hollywood. The movement is not only geographical, it is also artistic.
Chapter II. Hollywood
In Hollywood, Weegee is less interested in the people than in the very important people. His pictures of celebrities are rarely flattering, and he quickly enjoys manipulating his photographs to create caricatures of famous people – whether from the world of entertainment or politics. He uses his art to make fun of entertainment society, the star system and the idolatry of public figures.
Jackie Kennedy, Distortion, 1963
Charles de Gaulle, Distortion, 1959
Marilyn, Distortion, 1955
Self-portrait, Distortion, 1955
This second part of Weegee’s photographic work attracts little attention from critics and the art market, unlike his New York work which was quickly collected and exhibited at MoMA. It is even often reduced to the rank of a “gadget” (Louis Stettner, photographer) or a “profoundly vulgar work” (John Szarkowski, director of the photography department at MoMA from 1962 to 1991).
Charlie Chaplin, Distortion, 1950
Self-portrait, 1950
Despite this caesura, despite the Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde phenomena (in the words of Wegge himself in a 1965 interview – he dies in 1968), there is a very real continuity in the artist’s intention, which never stopped photographing the flaws of the society in which he lived and which would foreshadow the society of overconsumption and permanent spectacle in which we live today.
Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation
March 29, 2024
