Weegee: Murder is My Business

264 pages
Text(s) by Weegee, Rosa Reilly, Eddy Portnoy, Carol Squiers, Richard Meyer and Alan Trachtenberg
28.1 x 21.9 cm
Language: English
Hardback
Publisher: Prestel
2013

Drawn from the International Center of Photography’s archives, Weegee: Murder is My Business highlights the incomparable style and fascinating career of Weegee, one of New York City’s quintessential press photographers.

For a decade between 1935 and 1946, Weegee made a name for himself snapping crime scenes, victims, and perpetrators. Armed with a Speed Graphic camera and a police-band radio, Weegee often beat the cops to the story, determined to sell his pictures to the sensation-hungry tabloids. His stark black-and-white photos were often lurid and unsettling. Yet, as this beautifully produced volume shows, they were also brimming with humanity.

Designed as a series of "dossiers," this book follows Weegee’s transformation from a freelancer to a photo-detective. It explores his relationship with the tabloid press and gangster culture and reveals his intimate knowledge of New York’s darkest corners. It provides readers with a rich historical experience—a New York City "noir" shot through the lens of one of its most iconoclastic figures.