Fooling Around With Google's Street View and Weegee's Naked City...

...only a first draft, we spent a number of hours identifying locations of Weegee's photos and finding them with Google's Street View, again, this is only a first draft, an experiment...

A Sad Day in Weegee's World...

Weegee died today, December 26, 1968...

He died in New York, and was 69 years old...

Exhibitions: When in Poland...

(Old News)

The Berinson Weegee Collection Exhibition in Poland:

May 9, 2009 - July 26, 2009

The National Museum in Krakow...

Copied from National Museum's Web Site:

Weegee from the Berinson’s Collection 9 May 2009  -  26 July 2009 The National Museum in Krakow – the Main Building, al. 3 Maja 1 The figure of Weegee as a pioneer and a classic figure in journalistic photography,  characterized by the picture taken ‘off the cuff,’ implies questions about the  borderline between spontaneity and the creation of a spectacle, appeasing the  mass audience’s desire for the sensational. These pictures from the collection  of Hendrik Berinsonn, shown in Krakow for the very first time, bear incredible  testimonial to a time – and from behind the pictures emerges the figure of the  artist himself, who was already a legend back in the 30s and 40s – when he  was most professionally active. Weegee was the pseudonym of Arthur Felig, born in 1899 into a Jewish  family in Złoczew, not far from Lwów (now Lviv, Ukraine). In 1909  his family immigrated to the United States – Fellig grew up in New York’s  Lower East Side. This was one of the most dangerous districts during the time of the Great Depression – it became the scene of his professional  work. As a teenager, he left his parents and took various pick-up jobs,  including one as assistant to a street photographer. He also visited the  police station, taking pictures of criminals, which in time transformed into  his passion and his profession. He was a typical self-made man, who was  more interested in being in the center of events and being their witness than he was in the artistic side of photography. He worked for the most  frequently read newspapers: ‘The Daily News,’ ‘The Daily Mirror,’ and ‘PM,’  whose editors primarily valued his incredible mobility. Weegee’s speed was  (like just about everything concerning him) legendary – he apparently could  appear at the scene of the crime before the police or the firemen.  This should come as no surprise, given that he was equipped with a police  radio. He always had a typewriter at the ready and an extra pair of underwear,  and his car had a darkroom installed in the trunk. Weegee was mainly interested  in crime – murder, mugging, accidents. In New York in the 30s and 40s you  could find a ‘fresh’ corpse on just about every street-corner. Photojournalists back then generally lived in strategic parts of town. One of the  most famous was the main New York police station, Center Market Place,  bordering on Little Italy, Chinatown and SoHo. From there, Weegee could  keep on top of an endless stream of crimes, and also head for the rich  districts, where he and his camera chronicled the luxurious life of the  New York’s high society. His photographs unerringly capture the societal  differences and almost neurotic tension typical of the New York of those  times. He loved to photograph the rich, and people on the verge of  madness. For all his documentary approach, Weegee’s work reveals a heavy dose of cynicism, visible in the title of a 1939 photo - I Cried When  I Took This Picture.  ‘The best bad things happen at night.’ Weegee worked mainly at night.  His photographs are strangely contemporary, a constant attempt to grasp the  moment. They seem to be spontaneous – they are limited to the moment of  the flash, whose light is reflected off the subjects in the picture. They are  the victims of the crime, but also the viewer himself: the participant in  the crime who wants a picture of it, the tabloid reader. The spontaneity  and documentary feel may, however, be misleading. A famous picture  called The Critic (1943) shows self-satisfied ladies of the upper crust  going toward the Metropolitan Opera, passing by women of the night.  This picture perfectly captures the tension between the polarized statuses  of the women. The picture’s fleeting character gives it the feel of authenticity.  It turns out, however, to have been set up. This fact reveals the process of the  spontaneous mythologization of events, the constant building of the legend of  prohibition-era New York. Everything happens like a big performance,  documented by the Famous Weegee.

Weegee Covers Christmas in New York... In Words and Pictures

Weegee Covers Christmas in New York... In Words and Pictures PM Daily, December 26, 1940 by Weegee Early Christmas Eve I received a phone call from Wesley Price, one of PM's picture editors. Price told me he wanted a good holiday picture, something with plenty of OOMPH. Lots of Christmas spirit in it. in other words a masterpiece. Jokingly I replied you just couldn't order a picture like that, like you would a box of cigars. It had to happen. However, I asked him if he had any suggestions. He suggested that I get the picture in for the first edition. 
I left police headquarters in my car at 2:30 Christmas morning. I turned the two radios on. One the regular broadcast receiver, to get some holiday music to put me in the mood; and the other radio, a police short wave receiver to get the police signals so I would know what was going on. 
The first police call I picked up was for West and Bank Sts. When I got there I found a car with a Jersey license, turned on its side, with a cop on top of it. Nobody seemed to be hurt. Soon a towing wagon arrived to take the car away. I made a shot of it and was on my way. 
Then I picked up six fire alarm signals. They were alll false. I didn't think Santa did that. 
Then I stopped at the All Night Mission at No. 8 Bowery. Every night in the year about 100 hopelessly beaten and homeless men sit on benches and sleep as best they can. 
Except for a Christmas tree in front, everything was the same. The same despair and hopelessness. I tiptoed in at 4 in the morning, being careful not to disturb anyone. Everyone was asleep. The place was as usual playing to "Sitting up" only. The same electric sign was lit with the illuminated big letters, JESUS SEES, the only source of light in the place. I wondered if He approved... 
On the way out, along a big stove near the door, I noticed a pair of stockings, turned inside out, hung to dry. 
Next I picked up a police alarm for 102nd St. and Lexington Ave. When I got there I found a man had been stabbed to death and was lying on the corner. From the St. John's Episcopal Church, on the opposite corner, came the sound of organ music and the singing of the Christmas worshipers. I made a shot of the scene and started back to police headquarters. 
When I arrived at my home, in back of Police Headquarters, I found a package wrapped in fancy paper outside my door. It was a present from my Chinese laundry man, Willie Chu, of 95 Elizabeth St. It contained a pound of tea and a half pound of lichee nuts. I had been looking for the Christmas spirit all night long. And had found it, on my doorstep. Lichee NUTS to you, Santa Claus...

Exhibitions: When in London...

At the Atlass Gallery

10/09/2009- 01/16/2010
www.atlasgallery.com (annoying flash website)

A Polaroid by Philllipe Halsman of Weegee...

Weegee did take many Polaroids, nevertheless, I don't think there are any in this exhibition.
"Weegee's Polaroids" new exhibition, coming soon...

Philllipe Halsman, [Weegee], 1961

Centre Market Place 12/16/2009

Indecisively walking down Centre Market place, coming back from a performance at Phill Niblock's Experimental Intermedia loft...

5 Centre Market Place 12/21/2009

Where Weegee lived and across the street, police headquarters... And perhaps the same, original cobblestones, on the northern tip of Centre Market Place, where Weegee walked... On a cold, quiet winter solstice...