Strangelove’s Weegee, June 14 – July 26, 2013

“Rare set of Weegee photographs on view at Presentation House.”
Interview with the curator here…

“He was working with a Speed Graphic and so you were limited in the number of photographs you could take. He was working with flash because that had been insisted upon by Kubrick. On the set every time he took a photograph you had a little mini atomic explosion going off. I think that’s one of the reasons he got invited on the set because Kubrick wanted him to take flash photographs. He didn’t have to by that time because the technology had changed. He was using flash with a Speed Graphic 4 by 5 camera and you couldn’t take a lot of photographs with that because you had to change the plate and put in another bulb.”

(Perhaps Weegee was really using a 2 1/4 Rolliflex camera. Perhaps in 1963 Weegee was not using a 4 x 5 Speed Graphic; the negatives are 120mm…)

1963? In the UK? Unstrangelove…

In an intriguing and misleading (and perhaps incorrect) recent eBay auction one 8″ x 10″ photo, from the 1940s, and nine 4″ x 5″ photos, from the 1950s, were sold recently… All ten photos sold for $199.99.
One could argue that they represent Weegee’s work during World War II, enthusiastically covering the home front, (uniformly good and sometimes great), and his post war work, enthusiastically covering women in bikinis, enthusiastically covering cheesecake, (uniformly great and sometimes good;-)… One could also argue that nine of the ten photos were not made by Weegee…

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Photo was probably made in 1943-1944. (One stamp is from 1943-44, the other ca. 1966-68.)
Unusual: lighting, composition, content, etc.

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These photos were not made by Weegee. They were made around 1953. (Assistant? Nope.)

Images above and words below from eBay:

“”ARTHUR FELLIG “WEEGEE” 10 ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS COLLECTION”

“EXTREMELY RARE PHOTO SESSION BY WEEGEE AND WEEGEE STAMPS ON ONE”

THIS RARE COLLECTION CONSISTS OF (9) ORIGINAL SILVER GELATINS BY WEEGEE HIMSELF. THE FIRST PHOTOGRAPH OF WEEGEE AND MODEL WAS TAKEN BY HIS ASSISTANT. ALL OTHERS WERE TAKEN BY WEEGEE WITH HIS CAMERA PRESENT. “PHOTOGRAPH OF WEEGEE WITH CIGAR IN HIS MOUTH HOLDING HIS CAMERA.”

THE PHOTOGRAPHS WERE TAKEN IN 1940, NEW YORK, OF A PIN UP MODEL.

ALL PHOTOGRAPHS ARE 4″ X 5″, ALL SILVER GELATIN. “WILL PASS PSA” AS THEY ARE ALL THE ORIGINALS.

ALL ORIGINALS HAVE LIGHT WEAR.

2) ARTHUR FELLIG “WEEGEE” STAMPED SILVER GELATIN PHOTOGRAPH

SIZE: 10″ X 8″

VERSO: WEEGEE STAMPS AND WRITTEN NOTATIONS, 1948 NEW YORK

CONDITION: CREASE ON END LEFT CORNER, STAIN ON VERSO, PHOTOGRAPH NEEDS TO BE LAID FLAT, OLD PHOTOGRAPH.”

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PM Daily, June 16, 1943
40 Saved From Blazing Street Car After Bowery Collision…
“Apparently trying to cut in ahead of the street car, Woodrow Rivers, the truck driver, was crushed to death behind his steering wheel as the truck was wedged between the trolley and an elevated pillar. This picture was made after fire had swept through the truck.”
Photos by Weegee

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Weegee Daily, June 16, 2013
Amazing (and perhaps slightly lesser-known) late, early period fire and car-truck-extinct-public-transportation crash photos… In front of the Gotham Hotel, at 356 Bowery…
Photo by Ceegee
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Google Street View’s view of 356 Bowery (not my 344 Bowery)…

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And it’s unusual to see an AF number in printed photographs; (1943 is when this is prevalent)…

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PM Daily, June 14, 1943
Cooling Off on the East Side
With tenements in the background East Siders enjoy splashing around in the park pool at E. Houston and Pitt Sts. Youngsters get in for nine cents.
Photo by Weegee, PM

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Weegee Daily, June 15, 2013
Drying Off on the East Side
With public housing in the background no one is splashing around in the Hamilton Fish Play Center. (“The outdoor pool season begins on June 28.“) Youngsters get in for free!

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PM Daily, June 24, 1943
No. 17 Is on Its Last Legs
With the all-important No, 17 coupon expiring on Thursday, New York shoe stores were jammed even on Sunday. These young ladies are trying on same white models at a shoe store on Delancey St., on the lower East side.
Photos by Weegee

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Weegee Daily, June 15, 2013
With the all-important fiscal year ending on Sunday, New York shoe stores on Delancey St., on the lower East Side, were not jammed even on Saturday…
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The stores were so uncrowded that the doors were open and potential alligator shoe and fine exotic footwear customers closed their eyes and walked right on by…
Photos by Ceegee