See Weegee's Bloody and Beautiful Crime Scene Photography, Showcased in Two Exhibitions
See Weegee's Bloody and Beautiful Crime Scene Photography, Showcased in Two Exhibitions
WHAT: “Weegee: Murder is My Business” and “Weegee: Naked City”
WHEN: Through September 20, and through February 25
WHERE: International Center of Photography, 1133 Avenue of the Americas at 43rd St., and Steven Kasher Gallery, 521 West 23rd St., New York
WHY THESE SHOWS MATTER: Weegee is back where he belongs: in New York City. Following an excursion to the West Coast he returns with two simultaneous exhibitions, “Weegee: Murder is My Business” at the International Center of Photography and “Weegee: Naked City” at Steven Kasher Gallery. With nigh-scholarly knowledge of the after-hours city no normal person saw, the artist loved the dark, depraved, and shameful corners of life most. The tabloid photographer was a self-publishing and self-made one-man-media-show. He reigned supreme as the go-to guy for capturing your murder in just the right light — Weegee made the living look good, but he made the bad, ugly, and dead look better. He framed the grotesque deaths of small-time crooks and infamous mob-bosses with the same care Avedon later captured the curves of fashion models.
Weegee could tell a story in a single snapshot, echoing the faint curiosity peppered with apathy of an urban passerby. In one shot from 1941, showing a police officer and lodge member looking at a blanket-covered woman who had been trampled to death, the photographer's wry tone displays an inability to discern the difference between tragedy and everyday annoyance.
The ICP exhibition, organized by Chief curator Brian Wallis, paints one picture of Weegee: that of the murder-documentarian extraordinaire. The concurrent exhibition at Steven Kasher Gallery provides a depth and range not obvious at the ICP by fully fleshing out Weegee's talent for portraiture. In “Watching a Five Alarm Fire, First Avenue at 30th Street” (1940), a front-lit crowd gapes with a mixture of glee and horror. The excitement of the event suppresses the reality that their neighbors’ homes are being destroyed around them. While ICP does a great job at showing the Weegee of the criminal underworld, what it lacks is his own personal photographic interests. Steven Kasher Gallery more than makes up for the lack – giving us Weegee’s own diary of New York.
To see works from both exhibitions click on the slide show.
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