Fall/Winter 2012/2013 - Steidl
Fall/Winter 2012/2013 - Steidl
Fall/Winter 2012/2013 - Steidl
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54<br />
Weegee<br />
Murder Is My Business<br />
Gangland murders, gruesome car crashes and perilous tenement fires were the staples of Weegee’s flashlit black-and-<br />
white work as a freelance press photographer in the mid 1930s. These graphic and sometimes sensationalistic photos<br />
of New York crimes and news events set the standard for what has since become known as tabloid journalism.<br />
Taking its title from Weegee’s self curated exhibition at the Photo League in 1941, Murder Is My Business examines<br />
the urban violence and mayhem that was the focus of his early work. Challenged to capture unique images of<br />
newsworthy events and distribute them quickly, Weegee would listen to his police band radio receiver for news of fresh<br />
crimes and often arrive at crime scenes before the police themselves, allowing him to case each scene and create the<br />
best composition. Murders, he claimed, were the easiest to photograph because the subjects never moved or became<br />
temperamental.<br />
Murder Is My Business features Weegee’s most famous images in the context of their original presentation in period<br />
newspapers and exhibitions, as well as Weegee’s own books and films. The book also presents case studies of various<br />
crimes photographed by Weegee including original documents from police dossiers, and partial reconstructions of<br />
Weegee’s studio and his Photo League exhibition.<br />
Weegee (Arthur Fellig, 1899–1968) is best known for his tabloid news photos of urban crowds, crime scenes and<br />
New York City nightlife of the 1930s and 1940s. Between 1935 and 1946, Weegee was perhaps the most relentlessly<br />
inventive figure in American photography. Weegee later dedicated himself to what he called “creative photography”,<br />
images made through distorting lenses and other optical effects. He also made short films and collaborated with film<br />
directors such as Jack Donohue and Stanley Kubrick, as a special-effects consultant and still photographer.<br />
Exhibition: International Center of Photography, New York, 20 January to 2 September <strong>2012</strong><br />
Weegee:<br />
Murder is my<br />
Business<br />
Co-published with the International Center of Photography, New York<br />
Weegee<br />
Murder Is My Business<br />
Edited by Brian Wallis<br />
Essays by Alan Trachtenberg, Carol Squiers, Richard Meyer,<br />
Eddy Portnoy and Brian Wallis<br />
Book design by Maya Peraza-Baker<br />
300 pages<br />
8.2 x 10.7 in. / 21 x 27 cm<br />
250 photographs<br />
Tritone and four colour process<br />
Softcover<br />
€ 38.00 / £ 30.00 / US$ 48.00<br />
ISBN 978-3-86930-441-0<br />
55
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