The Critic

Photographer Weegee, real name Arthur Fellig, was a relentless documenter of the seamy side of New York in the 1930s and 40s. Much of his work depicted unflinchingly gruesome scenes of crime, injury and death which he found by following the emergency services as they dealt with the violence and tragedies of the city. He was supposed to have acquired his nickname from Ouija, as in Ouija board, because of his uncanny ability to arrive so quickly at crime scenes.

He was also unashamedly a populist, on the side of the little people against the wealthy Manhattanites. In that vein here's one of his most famous pictures..."The Critic":

Opening night at the Metropolitan Opera, taken November 22, 1943, and first published in LIFE, December 6, 1943. 

It became a classic image of New York's class divide.

The other day I came across this photo by Simon Nathan:

"Mrs. George Washington Kavanaugh, never seen at an opening without her diamond tiara, talks to Photographer Weegee, 1945."

The same ladies, the same fur coats, very likely the same jewellery, but not the same occasion. It's two years later. They don't seem too happy, the ladies - see the daggers look from the one on the left - though Weegee himself is all smiles. Is the bejewelled Mrs. George Washington Kavanaugh remonstrating because she was made to look foolish on their earlier meeting? Very likely - but she had good cause. That 1943 picture was a set-up:

The opening night of the Metropolitan Opera in 1943 was advertised as a Diamond Jubilee to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the company. In a recent interview, Louie Liotta, a photographer who acted as Weegee's assistant, recalled that Weegee has been planning this photograph for a while. Liotta, at Weegee's request, picked up one of the regular women customers at Sammy's on the Bowery at about 6:30 p.m. With a sufficient amount of cheap wine for the woman, they proceeded to the opera house. When they arrived, the limousines owned by the members of high society were just beginning to discharge their passengers. Weegee asked Liotta to hold the now intoxicated woman near the curb as he stood about twenty feet away from the front doors of the opera house. With a signal worked out in advance, Weegee gave the sign to Liotta, who releasd the woman, hoping all the while that she could keep her balance long enough for Weegee to expose several plates. The moment had finally arrived: Mrs. George Washington Kavenaugh and Lady Decies were spotted getting out of a limousine. Both women were generous benefactors to numerous cultural institutions in New York and Philadelphia, and Weegee knew that they were known to every newspaper in New York. Liotta recalled the moment he released the disheveled woman: "It was like an explosion. I thought I went blind from the three or four flash exposures which Weegee made within a very few seconds." For his part, Weegee told the story that he "discovered" the woman viewing the opera patrons after the negative had been developed, never revealing the prank, saying it was as much a surprise to him as anyone.

So, even this early in the history of photojournalism, things aren't always quite what they seem. 

Here's another striking Weegee picture I came across recently which also may not be quite what it seems:

All done with mirrors.

 

Comments

[dearieme]

"That 1943 picture was a set-up": weren't they all? The Red Army soldiers at the Reichstag, the raising of the US flag at Iwo Jima, the perky cockney milkman making his deliveries through the Blitz - all were set-ups.

[Mick H]

The perky cockney milkman was a set-up? Say it ain't so!

[dearieme]

He wasn't even a milkie.

[dearieme]

Here's another (from the Chicagoboyz blog):

"... dMacArthur ... knew how to wage public relations, with his famous shot of stepping off the landing craft at Leyte was re-shot (take 2!) giving a more favorable frame."