Gangland homicides, tragic road accidents, devastating tenement fires are the main subjects of the flash-lit black and white shots by photographer Weegee (1899-1968) in his business as a freelance photojournalist in the mid-30s. Until 14 July 2013, Palazzo Magnani of Reggio Emilia hosts the exhibition Weegee. Murder Is My Business. The important exhibition appointment, curated by Brian Wallis, Chief Curator of the ICP, is organized – as part of the VIII edition of European Photography – by the Palazzo Magnani Foundation, GAmm Giunti and the International Center of Photography (ICP) of New York.
The intensely dramatic, sometimes sensationalistic photographs of crimes and news stories on display New York, lay the foundations of what would later be called tabloid journalism. For a busy decade from 1935 to 1946, Weegee was perhaps the most relentlessly inventive figure in the American photography landscape. Her name literally became a legend, so much so that the director Stanley Kubrick (to whom Palazzo Magnani dedicated a photographic exhibition in 2011) went so far as to state, referring to the early years of his career – when films such as The Assassin's Kiss or Armed Robbery suggestively reflected the climate of American metropolises – that one of the sources of his inspiration was the photographer Weegee. In fact, Kubrick wanted him as a filming consultant in 1958 del Dr. Strangelove movie.
Taking the title of the exhibition that Weegee curated for himself at the Photo League in 1941, Murder is My Business, exhibited at Palazzo Magnani, intends to shed light on the violence and urban chaos, subjects at the center of first artistic production of the photographer. As a freelance photojournalist at a time when New York City had at least eight dailies and news agencies were just starting to handle photographic imagery, Weegee was faced with the challenge of capturing unique images of newsworthy events and distributing them quickly. He worked almost exclusively at night, leaving his tiny apartment opposite the police headquarters as soon as his radio - tuned to police frequencies - informed him of a new crime. Often arriving before law enforcement itself, Weegee carefully inspected each scene to find the best angle. The murders, he claimed, were the easiest to photograph because the subjects never moved or fidgeted.
The exhibition, curated by Brian Wallis, Chief Curator of the ICP, presents rare examples of Weegee's most famous and iconic images – over 100 original photographs, mostly drawn from Weegee's extensive ICP archive of 20.000 prints, as well as period newspapers, magazines and films – and considers his early works in the context of their original presentation – in newspapers and in historical exhibitions – as well as his books and films. It also features partial reconstructions of Weegee's studio and his exhibit at the Photo League. To explore further details relating to the images and objects present, some touch-screens are available to the visitor.
Weegee (Arthur Fellig 1899 – 1968) – Weegee's ascendant career as a photographer in the 30s coincided with the heyday of Murder Inc., the Brownsville Jewish gang that supplied hired killers to the Syndicate, the New York association of crime bosses mostly Italian underworld. With the tide of governmental and legal action that swept through the city between 1935 and 1941, there was an escalation in the number of murders of small-time gangsters and potential informers.
The photographer often worked alongside the police, but he also befriended high-profile criminals such as Bugsy Siegel, Lucky Luciano and Legs Diamond. Weegee called himself the "personal photographer of Murder Inc." and he claimed to have dealt with 5.000 murders, perhaps an exaggerated number, but not much. Pointing out the true nature of his business, Weegee proudly displayed the check stub from LIFE magazine, which had paid him $35 for two murders.
Selling his photographs to a series of New York newspapers in the 30s, and later working as a freelance contributor to the short-lived PM newspaper (1940-48), Weegee established a highly subjective approach to both photographs and texts, very different from what was adopted by most of the newspapers and illustrated magazines of the time. Through other distribution channels, Weegee wrote extensively (including his autobiographical work Naked City published in 1946) and organized his own exhibitions at the Photo League, the important photographic association which promoted politically engaged photographs, particularly of the working classes. In 1941, Weegee staged two consecutive exhibitions at league headquarters. This visibility helped establish his growing reputation as a photojournalist, who began labeling his prints "Famous Weegee." Widespread appreciation of his intense style of photography, which did not disdain subjects from the lower classes and stories steeped in humanity, led to his acquisition by the Museum of Modern Art and its inclusion in two group exhibitions in the museum itself , in 1943 and 1945.
“Weegee has often been dismissed as a naïve photographer, but he was actually one of the most original and enterprising photojournalists of the 30s and 40s. His best photos combine humor, boldness and surprisingly original points of view, especially when considering the journalistic and documentary photos of the time. He favored unashamedly tabloid and low-brow approaches and subjects, but his photographs of Depression-era New York City must be held in higher esteem, along with the work of other seminal documentary filmmakers of the 30s, such as Dorothea Lange, Robert Capa , Walker Evans and Berenice Abbott,” Wallis says of him.
Weegee's archive was donated to the ICP in 1993 by Wilma Wilcox, his partner of many years. The ICP_The International Center of Photography (ICP) was founded in 1974 by Cornell Capa (1918-2008) as an institution dedicated to photography that has a central and vital role in contemporary culture in its reflection and influence on social changes. Through our museum, school, and community-focused programs, we value photography's ability to open up new opportunities for personal and aesthetic expression, to transform popular culture, and to continually evolve to include new technologies. The ICP has presented more than 500 exhibitions, bringing the works of more than 3.000 photographers and other artists to the public in solo and group exhibitions, and has provided thousands of courses and workshops that have enriched tens of thousands of students.
The exhibition was created by the International Center of Photography in New York, with support from the ICP Exhibitions Committee, the David Berg Foundation, an anonymous donor, and public funds from the New York City Department of Culture in association with the City Council.
