1. Arthur Fellig, known by his pseudonym Weegee, was a photographer and photojournalist, known for his stark black and white street photography in New York City.
22 Facts About Weegee
1. 2.
Weegee worked in Manhattan's Lower East Side as a press photographer during the 1930s and 1940s and developed his signature style by following the city's emergency services and documenting their activity.
3.
Weegee published photographic books and worked in cinema, initially making his own short films and later collaborating with film directors such as Jack Donohue and Stanley Kubrick.
4.
Weegee's given name was changed to Arthur after he immigrated with his family to New York in 1909.
5.
Weegee left Acme in 1935 to become a freelance photographer.
6.
Weegee worked at night and competed with the police to be first at the scene of a crime, selling his photographs to tabloids and photographic agencies.
7.
Weegee's photographs, centered around Manhattan police headquarters, were soon published by the Daily News and other tabloids, as well as more upscale publication such as Life magazine.
8.
Weegee traveled extensively in Europe until 1964, working for the London Daily Mirror and on a variety of photography, film, lecture, and book projects.
9.
On December 26,1968, Weegee died in New York at the age of 69.
10.
Weegee carried a flashlight for adjusting his camera settings in the dark.
11.
Weegee worked mostly at night; he listened closely to broadcasts and often beat authorities to the scene.
12.
Weegee was later included in "50 Photographs by 50 Photographers", another MoMA show organized by photographer Edward Steichen, and he lectured at the New School for Social Research.
13.
In 1948, Weegee's aesthetic formed the foundation for Hellinger's film The Naked City.
14.
Weegee experimented with 16mm filmmaking himself beginning in 1941 and worked in the Hollywood industry from 1946 to the early 1960s, as an actor and a consultant.
15.
Weegee was an uncredited special effects consultant and credited stills photographer for Stanley Kubrick's 1964 film Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.
16.
Weegee's accent was one of the influences for the accent of the title character in the film, played by Peter Sellers.
17.
Weegee is credited for this as "Luigi" in the film's opening titles.
18.
Weegee traveled widely in Europe in the 1960s, where he photographed nude subjects.
19.
In 1962, Weegee starred as himself in a "Nudie Cutie" exploitation film, intended to be a pseudo-documentary of his life.
20.
Weegee can be seen as the American counterpart to Brassai, who photographed Paris street scenes at night.
21.
In 2012, ICP opened another Weegee exhibition titled, Murder Is My Business.
22.
How to photograph a corpse, based on relevant photographs from Weegee's portfolio, including many vintage prints.