Weegee - Nightcrawler

NSFW - WARNING CONTAINS IMAGES OF DEAD PEOPLE

 
The name of the photographer Arthur Fellig may not be as familiar as that of the actor Jake Gyllenhaal but they are associated through the character Lou Bloom and plot of the 2014 neo-noir film, Nightcrawler.

Arthur Fellig is known better by the nickname Weegee, which popular legend suggests arose as a play on Ouija the name of the popular spirit board, through his seemingly prophetic ability of knowing when and where a murder or mayhem was going to be committed, such was his haste at appearing at New York city crime scenes in the 1930s and 40s, in order to take press photos. His seemingly supernatural speed was actually down to his use of a police radio alerting him to incidents as they happened and his use of his car's trunk as a mobile darkroom enabling him to remain on the streets for longer periods.

“Body of Dominick Didato, Elizabeth Street, New York” Weegee (1936).

A crowd gathers around the body of a man killed in a fracas on Mulberry Street in New York City ~Weegee (1939).

Murder NYC ~ Weegee (circa 1940)

 

 

Weegee (date uncertain)

Possibly more disturbing than Weegee's photos of the recipients of violent death are the photos of onlookers. The following two shots show the murder victim and the mob of children who gawked at the scene. The distraught woman in the photo is a relative of the murdered man.

 

Their First Murder. Brooklyn ~ Weegee (1940s)

At an East Side Murder ~ Weegee (date uncertain)

An unsettling aspect of Weegee's career is the allegation that appearing at a crime scene before emergency services he would rearrange victims and evidence for the sake of a better composition. This grisly aspect provided inspiration for both Walter Mannaert & Max de Radigues ' 2016 Graphic novel Weegee. Serial Photographer and for the character of the unsavoury Lou Bloom in Dan Gilroy's 2014 movie Nightcrawler. In this film Bloom becomes a 'stringer' - a freelancer selling crime scene footage to news networks. As the film develops we discover what ends he will go to to gain success in his career.

 

 

Though Weegee said himself that "Murder is my business" it is worth noting that he has a much larger oeuvre of work - much of it concentrating on life rather than death ... albeit frequently a seedier, stranger
or sadder slice of life but life nonetheless ...

Cab driver with Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade clown, New York ~ Weegee  (c.1942)

 

Circus performer Jimmy Armstrong ~ Weegee (circa 1943)

 

Tenement Sleeping during heat wave. Lower East Side. NYC ~ Weegee (1941)

Portrait of Weegee ~ Photographer Unidentified / Self Portrait on timer?

by Andy Paciorek