Weegee’s Manhattan
Photography is filled with ardent and zealous enthusiasts. Arthur Fellig was one of them. In his heyday, “Weegee” as he was called was one of the most famous photographers in New York City and always first on the scene:
“Weegee’s peak period as a freelance crime and street photographer was a whirl of perpetual motion running from the mid-1930s into the postwar years. Ceaselessly prowling the streets during the graveyard shift, he took thousands of photographs that defined Manhattan as a film noir nightscape of hoodlums and gangsters, Bowery bums and slumming swells, tenement dwellers and victims of domestic brawls, fires and car crashes. He gave it its enduring nickname, the Naked City.”
Weegee! Saw a retrospective of his work at ICP in New York. He lived up to his reputation and moniker for NYC as “the naked city.” My pedestrian photographic work can be seen at http://www.bentpage.wordpress.com. I’m a writer now, but miss photography.