Labor Day… 1944

September 6, 2011
1944, Labor Day
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“Here’s the Labor Day Rush at the Holland Tunnel
Our photographer waited around at the Holland Tunnel yesterday to get the Labor Day traffic…”
Photo by John De Biase


“Bronx Motorists Strike Oil
Bogart’s Service Station at 164th St. and Jerome Ave. he Bronx, was a Labor Day rarity – it had gasoline to sell. At 10 a.m. yesterday cars were lined up there for more than a block.”
Photo by Stanley Kubrick (!)
(19 years later… from Bogart’s in the Bronx to Strangelove in Shepperton…)

Weegee the Wag… On Labor Day

September 5, 2011
1940
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PM Daily, July 28, 1940

They’d Sooner Be at the Beach, But Heat or No Heat, Jobs Are Scarce

Weegee, the wag, finished up the day by taking his own picture in the darkroom. Note camera release in his hand…

Two pages full of heroic, hot, workers, and in the corner… Weegee showering in the darkroom…

Weegee at MoMA…

September 5, 2011
exhibition, Moma
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Two Weegee photos at MoMA, with context, September 3, 2011

Bizarre… the movie theater distortion photo (ca. 1955) was a “recent acquisition”… a Weegee (Governor Dewey and photographers) photo next to anonymous Signal Corps photos, Dmitri Baltermants, anonymous New York Times photos, and adjacent to an entire wall full of vernacular photos made by an “Unknown Photographer,” (another recent acquisition)… Weegee as modernist; Weegee as photojournalist… thought I was in another museum… for a moment or two…

to be continued…