Photographer Research Project
Ryan O’Connell ARS 281
BIOGRAPHICAL INFO
Weegee was born in the Ukraine in 1899. He then immigrated with his family to the United States when he was about 10 years old. His professional career started with him working in a darkroom, processing photos, and it wasn’t until he was in his late 30s that he decided to start freelancing. The story of Weegee is inspiring because anyone with a camera can do what Weegee did for a career if they really go for it. Weegee was a determined person. His perseverance was admirable. Anyone can take pictures, and thousands of photos can be great, but what makes someone successful is work ethic and character. After a couple years of freelancing he found his niche and became a press photographer. A press photographer is someone who photographs events and real world news to portray lifestyles and stories. He would stay at the police station and listen to the police scanner so he could be fresh on the scene to photograph the crime. Press photography became popular in the 1920s and from the 1930s to the 1950s Weegee was able to push his photography farther than most due to his ability to produce with speed and skill. Weegee once said “The subject is news photography. This was the most wonderful experience for any man or woman to go through. It’s like a modern Aladdin’s Lamp, you rub it and, in this case the camera, you push the button and it gives you the things you want. News photography teaches you to think fast, to be sure of yourself, and self -confidence. When you go out on a story, you don’t go back for another sitting. You gotta get it.’” Weegee quickly became a very popular photographer due to his shocking and authentic photographs.
PHOTOGRAPHY STYLE
The Genre of Weegee’s work could be classified simply as street photography, but I feel there should be attention to his ability to storytell and create a narrative through even his most simplistic shots. Weegee’s personality is prevalent in his work. Weegee shot most of his photos in the dark, with the flash on. He used a 4 x 5 view camera with a flash bulb, and had it down to a science. He knew he needed to stand exactly 10 feet away to create a dramatic lighting on the subject with high contrast to its background much like a stage in theater art. His crime based photos mostly told a story with dramatic cinematic quality. This factor of his crime scene photos made them explicit, exposing, and straightforward. Although not all of his photos are crime photography, mostly all of them are street photography, based in cities and urban areas. Weegee has a talent for capturing emotion in portraits, and capturing emotion of a broad array of characters. Weegee was also interested in humor, and this contrasted his other photos very well. Oftentimes there were distortions made, or objects superimposed on his subjects.
RESEARCH SOURCES
Weegee by Kerry William Purcell. PHAIDON
https://americansuburbx.com/2010/05/interview-famous-photographers-tell-how.html