Naked City

by Arthur Felig Weegee and Weegee

Book Overview

Weegee was among the first to fully realize the camera's unique power to capture split-second drama and exaggerated emotion. But his profound influence on other photographers, most famously on Diane Arbus, derives not only from his sensational subject matter and his use of the blinding, close-up flash, but also from his eagerness to photograph the city at all hours, at all levels: coffee shops at three in the morning, hot summer evenings in the tenements,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0306812045
• ISBN13: 9780306812040
• Release Date: December 2002
• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Length: 244 Pages
• Weight: 0.86 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

Reprint of historic photobook from the 40s

This is a small-format (non-coffee-table) book containing a representative selection of Weegees typical photos of New York tragedies (mostly) of the 20s, 30s and 40s, together with his own cryptic comments. Not to everyone's taste, but an iconic social document of the place and times.

How they lived...and died

A fine selection of Weegee's unposed, spontaneous vignettes of life in the city, at least, as it was in the 30's and 40's, equivalent of today's TV "fuzz and the wuzz". His accompanying commentary, unghosted and punchy, mirrors the b/w images; snappy, to the point. The paper stock used here is cheap, but then, these photos usually appeared in the morning paper...in a time when there were newspapers.