The art of Weegee

Interesting, but is it art?

Questions of that sort, often asked about the work of Norman Rockwell, were also asked about that of his contemporary, photographer Arthur Fellig, better known as Weegee. The question is answered in the affirmative in the excellent biography Flash: The Making of Weegee the Famous by Christopher Bonanos.

Usher Fellig was a 10-year-old Jewish immigrant when he came through Ellis Island in 1909. He soon changed his name to Arthur, but later he called himself Weegee, his spelling of Ouija, because of his apparent clairvoyance in arriving at the scene of murders and fires so soon after they happened. He worked as a freelance news photographer, selling his photos, most of them taken at night with flashbulbs, to whichever of New York’s many newspapers at the time would buy them. He insisted that his name be placed in the credit line, helping to establish his fame, as well doing a favor for generations of newspaper photographers to follow.

One of Weegee's most famous photographs shows
an intoxicated woman watching two society women
walk by outside the Metropolitan Opera.

Weegee’s photos were stark and stunning, often oddly humorous. He had a knack for including signs in the background as if in commentary on the scene. Some of best photos showed not a murder victim nor a fire but the faces of those looking at the murder victim or the fire. He was not always the most honest of news photographers, as when he placed a manikin among a crowd of onlookers at a fire.

As his fame grew and as he got older, Weegee sought easier ways to make a living. He took assignments for Life and Look magazines,  he published collections of his photographs, he spent time in Hollywood trying to get into films (you might spot him in Every Girl Should Be Married, among other movies) and took distorted portraits of famous people. He even had a few shows in art galleries, but the art world never really accepted him. He was too coarse, too common, too vulgar.

Only after his death, as with Norman Rockwell, did the artistry in his best work become apparent.