Extra! Weegee

Description

No other photographer has caught the sensations, scandals and catastrophes of the 1930s and 1940s in New York City with his camera as captivatingly as Weegee. He was always directly on the spot when it happened and documented the events and the onlookers. All the works come from the N.E.A. agency archive, which was only rediscovered in 2012; most of the vintage prints are being published for the very first time in this volume. Weegee (1899-1968) was the first photographer to receive official permission in 1938 to listen in live to the New York police radio. From then onwards he sometimes even arrived at the trouble spot before the police and took countless photographs. From the hardened police officer to the loud-mouthed crook; from the midnight boozer to the dancing jazz musician; from a dramatic conflagration to the celebrations at the end of the Second World War: Weegee immortalised all these moments in unforgettable pictures. The volume also shows a hitherto unknown side of the famous photographer - happy people enjoying themselves. The works are complemented by the exciting story of the rediscovery of the archive, which was missing for decades.

Daniel Blau is founder and owner of the Galerie Daniel Blau in Munich. He is author or editor of From Silverpoint to Silver Screen, Lucian Freud: Portraits, and Fish Hooks of the Pacific Islands, all published by Hirmer Publishers.

"A comprehensive and compelling collection of scandalous sensations, smirking murderers, blood-scattered corpses, mangled cars and burning buildings."-- "Pop Matters" "Caches of Weegee pictures continue to be uncovered, including a stash from the Acme agency, mostly alternate frames or work peddled to the New York papers and later syndicated around the country. These pictures are newly reprinted in Extra! Weegee, a sumptuous album with hard-to-read original captions, which does nothing to diminish his reputation."-- "New York Review of Books" "Weegee was the Dante of New York's nighttime demimonde. His photos, of swells and speakeasies, crime and crowds, or perps and play, are a singular record of New York City in the 1930s and '40s. And just when you thought you had seen all of his work, a new book, Extra! Weegee, features vintage prints -- many previously unseen -- that captures Weegee's singular point of view."-- "New York Times, Lens Blog"