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WEEGEE's STORY: From the Berinson Collection
August 3 through October 28, 2001 -- at The Chrysler Museum of Art

The man known to the world as "Weegee" was born Usher Fellig in 1899 in the Austrian-Habsburg Empire (now Austria). In 1906 Weegee's father immigrated to the United States and later sent for his wife and their four children. At Ellis Island, young Usher's name was changed to Arthur, which he was called until 1938 when he adopted the now famous moniker of "Weegee." At the age of 19 Weegee found his first job in a photographic studio, and this experience prepared him for darkroom work at the New York Times a few years later. From 1924 to 1927, he worked in the photographic laboratory of Acme Newspictures (later taken over by UPI), occasionally assisting with press photography at night or in disaster situations when no agency photographers were available. These were the days of silent films and prohibition - a decisive influence on Weegee's work during the ensuing years when photographs of "mayhem and murder" became popular: gangster wars, daylight murders, railroad disasters, street scenes, and celebrities.

In 1935 he left Acme to begin his career as a freelance photographer. He turned to reporting, concentrating on the activities around the Manhattan police station. In 1938 he received permission to have a police radio in his own car. It was during the years 1935 to 1947 that Weegee's famous and unmistakable photographic works were created. He spent nights in his specially adapted car, equipped with a makeshift darkroom, ready at any time to take the first pictures of a crime scene or catastrophe. There were also countless compelling genre pictures: couples thronging Coney Island beach, in Harlem or at the cinema, and masked celebrity dancers at exotic charity balls. He captured the panorama of a world defined by societal opposites - transsexuals living beside Salvation Army fanatics, revue girls beside solitary night-owls, and down-and-outs beside elegant opera-goers. It was during this time that he began calling himself Weegee, phonetically adapted from the nickname "Ouija" - a spiritist's alphabet board - a moniker given to him earlier by his colleagues at Acme.

While his sensational photographs of a violent period of the Depression were printed by The Herald Tribune, Daily Times, Daily Mirror, New York Post, The Sun, World Telegram and Journal American, in 1941 the Photo League in New York held the first exhibition of his photographs entitled Weegee: Murder is My Business, and The Museum of Modern Art became the first to purchase his photographs as a legitimate art form. In 1945 he published his first book, Naked City, followed in 1946 by Weegee's People.

Meanwhile, national attention to his work continued to grow. In 1947, Naked City was made into the Jules Dassin film noir classic by Universal Pictures. While acting as a consultant for this film, Weegee moved to Hollywood where he turned his attention to avant-garde cinema. After returning to New York in 1952, Weegee continued as a film consultant, including work for Stanley Kubrick. It was not until the 1970s - after Weegee's death in 1968 - that his work achieved international recognition. The Chrysler is proud to be the first of only two American venues for Weegee's Story. The exhibition is organized by Margit Zuckriegl, curator for the Rupertinum Museum for Modern Art in Salzburg, Austria.


Visit Our Weegee's Story Website at www.chrysler.org/weegee for a sneak preview of the exhibition, special event information, and an extensive artist biography.
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For More Information or Images Please Contact the Chrysler at (757) 664-6200 or museum@chrysler.org

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