Wednesday, July 1, 2009

picture of the day

by weegee, 1950.
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5 comments:

  1. Matthew ChasneyJuly 1, 2009 at 2:26 PM

    I love Weegee. He never took himself too seriously, didn't try to do social commentary or fine art. He just showed up at the nights most grizzly crime scene, snapped away and developed the film in the trunk of his car. As a side note, I read somewhere that he was the inspiration for Peter Sellers' accent in Dr. Strangelove.

    This is great... looks like a post-war sunscreen ad gone wrong.

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  2. mauraJuly 1, 2009 at 2:39 PM

    yes! also, most of his shots are candid... which is amazing! i love candid shots, although i can never get good ones myself.

    i forgot to mention in the caption, but i do believe the woman in this photograph is a stripper painted gold.

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  3. Matthew ChasneyJuly 1, 2009 at 3:29 PM

    Of course she is! I wasn't sure if it was sand, glitter or perhaps jam.

    Mostly candid... and occasionally staged! The Critic was set up by Weegee and his assistant. He also cropped the hell out of it. Blogspot won't let me post the image... here's the link to the uncropped version.

    http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/79/96979-004-346B9485.jpg

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  4. mauraJuly 1, 2009 at 4:01 PM

    haha. i know! i was reading about The Critic this morning... and apparently he actually brought that creepy woman with him to the fancy event (picked her up from the bar he hung out), gave her a bottle of wine to keep her company, and then when all the people started arriving he had his assistant push her up to where they were sure to cross paths. brilliant.

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  5. Matthew ChasneyJuly 1, 2009 at 4:44 PM

    So kidnap a local malcontent, get her drunk and literally throw her into high society? Beautiful. Who really cares if it wasn't a spontaneous meeting. I think I like the image more because it was staged. You really have to admire the conceptual process at play there.

    There's also something really tantalizing about Weegee being a regular at some bar somewhere in Old New York.

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