Weegee – Life, Death and the Human Drama

Arthur Fellig (1899–1968) has gone down in history as “Weegee”. His pseudonym represents the perhaps most well-known press photographer, who slept, fully clothed, next to his radio; who followed the nightly New York police and fire department reports and almost obsessively documented the murders, suicides, accidents and fires in the city. With his own, direct technique – speed graphic camera and frontal flash – he placed the nightly scenes in a harsh light, documenting them with an almost brutal objectivity.

Weegee was also, however, a regular visitor to workers’ bars, nightclubs, restaurants and theatres of Broadway, carefully observing social and cultural situationsand events. His famous book, Naked City, from 1945 demonstrates that: with his choice of subjects and his simple photography, he was the most importnat chronicler of the city of New York. 

The exhibition was curated by Martin Barnes. Realisation in Winterthur: Urs Stahel. A cooperation with the International Center for Photography, New York.

Main sponsor: Winterthur Versicherungen