When in Berlin…
“Pigozzi and the Paparazzi”
June 19, 2008 – Nov. 16, 2008

(Wee remember Helmut Newton saying how annoying Weegee was, late in life, peddling his “distortion” photos everywhere…)

An on-going collection of images in publications of Weegee’s photo, “The Critic.”

Life, Dec. 6, 1943, pp. 38-39
Weegee’s Secrets, 1953, p. 35
Weegee By Weegee, 1961

Weegee’s Secrets, 1953, p. 32
HI, May 1957, p. 31

An on-going collection of images in publications of Weegee’s photo called “The Joy of Living.”
And the variations of “Joy of Living.”
It was taken on Third Ave., just below 42nd St…

In Weegee’s Secrets (1953) the title of this photo is: “Weegee at work in his ‘office.'”

Life, April 12, 1937, p. 8 and p. 9

A significant early portrait of Weegee.
Speaking of pictures… here’s two:

PM Daily, Feb. 1, 1944, p. 10
U.S. Camera, Feb. 1945, p. 39
Naked City, 1945, p. 61
Weegee’s Secrets, 1953, p. 24

“Ritz, the puppy belonging to William Kinsman, was one of the causalities of the two-alarm blaze at 157 West 74 St.
yesterday. Noticing the dog had a broken leg, a fireman wrapped him in a blanket and took him to the street.”
PM Daily, Feb. 1, 1944, p. 10

An on-going collection of images from publications of “Ritz, the puppy…” (Feb. 1, 1944).

(The “Ritz, the puppy…” photo makes our ever-changing top 250 Weegee photos list…)

… and here, and here, and here.

Where was Weegee?
Wee made a Google Map of some of the places Weegee took photos…
It’s not every location, and it’s unfinished and incomplete, a work-in-progress…
Wee have to add more photos and edit…
Nevertheless, wee have identified almost 300 photographic locations, this includes some iconic photos, like “Their First Murder.”

Amusing article from the NY Times:

October 22, 1995
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1995: PHOTO OP;Remains Of the Day
“Miles Barth recently discovered Weegee.
It’s about time, you might think, since Barth (right) is the curator of archives and collections at the Int. Center of Photos and Weegee was the photographer whose stark pictures of croaked gangsters filled New York’s tabloids in the 30’s and 40’s and bared what he called “the naked city.” No, Barth knew the work; it was the man’s essence he discovered.
His real name was Arthur Fellig, but New York baptized him Weegee because of the Ouija board that was said to get him to a cadaver faster than a cop. He died in 1968 and his companion, Wilma Wilcox, 25 years later; eventually, his life’s work ended up at the center and with Barth: cartons, boxes, packages. And one paper bag.
In the bag was a six-inch- square cardboard box. “I thought it was most likely a broken lens,” Barth says. But there was a label. And what it said was, “Contents: Arthur Fellig.” And that’s exactly who was there. His ashes now repose, in the still-unopened box, alongside his negatives. There are eight million stories in Weegee’s naked city. This is his.”

Unfortunately, the ashes no longer reside near Times Square, they gave someone the “hee-bee-gee-bees” and the ashes have since been dispersed at sea…

In the NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/nyregion/thecity/27jill.html?ref=nyregion&pagewanted=print
April 27, 2008
Through Weegee’s Lens
By NIKO KOPPEL
“BACK in the 1970s, a gutsy blond named Jill Freedman armed with a battered Leica M4 and an eye for the offbeat trained her lens on the spirited characters and gritty sidewalks of a now-extinct city.
Influenced by the Modernist documentarian André Kertész, with references to the hard-edged, black-and-white works of Weegee and Diane Arbus, this self-taught photographer captured raw and intimate images, and transformed urban scenes into theatrical dramas…”

Although the title is amusing, wee think “Through Jill’s Lens” or even “Through Helen’s Lens” would be more appropriate…