Weegee didn't invent 1930's tabloid news photography; he perfected it. The bold, graphic approach of his newspaper work was most often executed at night, his large camera flash freezing an event in dramatic and revealing light. Weegee observed of his work: "I was on the scene; sometimes drawn there by some power I can't explain, and I caught the New Yorkers with their masks off... not afraid to laugh, cry, or make love. What I felt I photographed, laughing and crying with them."
Life, Death, and the Human Drama.
The raucous, gritty, exuberant, and sometimes tender images of Weegee (Arthur Fellig, 1899-1968), one of this country's most celebrated photojournalists, will be on view in the Brackett Clark Gallery.
Weegee didn't invent 1930's tabloid news photography; he perfected it. The bold, graphic approach of his newspaper work was most often executed at night, his large camera flash freezing an event in dramatic and revealing light. Weegee observed of his work: "I was on the scene; sometimes drawn there by some power I can't explain, and I caught the New Yorkers with their masks off... not afraid to laugh, cry, or make love. What I felt I photographed, laughing and crying with them."
The exhibition of more than two hundred photographs traces the career of a news photographer whose very name became synonymous with the brash, telling tabloid photography of the time.
Organized by the International Center of Photography, New York.
George Eastman House - International Museum of Photography and Film - 900 East Avenue - Rochester, NY 14607 - Tel: 271 3361 - Fax: 271 3970