Born Ascher Fellig in Złoczów, Austrian Galicia, Wegee emigrated with his family to live in New York in 1909. He began his career as a freelance photographer as a necessity - photographer, and dark-room technician were two of the odd jobs that he had. In 1935 he left his technician job become a freelance photographer.
“In my particular case I didn’t wait ‘til somebody gave me a job or something, I went and created a job for myself—freelance photographer. And what I did, anybody else can do. What I did simply was this: I went down to Manhattan Police Headquarters and for two years I worked without a police card or any kind of credentials. When a story came over a police teletype, I would go to it. The idea was I sold the pictures to the newspapers. And naturally, I picked a story that meant something.” Weegee stated about beginning his freelance career.
Most of his notable photographs were taken with very basic press photographer equipment and methods of the era, a 4x5 Speed Graphic camera preset at f/16 at 1/200 of a second, with flashbulbs and a set focus distance of ten feet. His work originally was informed by the crimes of New York City, as that is what he did for a living. He developed his photos in the trunk of his car, so that he could get them to the newspapers quickly, which is one thought of how he earned his nickname– because he got to the sites so quickly, almost as if he could predict the crimes. He later used lenses that he made to distort photos, including a famous one of Marilyn Monroe, and used the lenses in a film sequence as well. In the 1960’s he travelled through Europe where he photographed nude subjects.
I like the stark contrast of his work, and feel that it portrays as much emotion as fact. It also seems that he could be credited as the first paparazzi, because while he photographed a variety of subjects, he knew that if it was a person of interest, the photo would sell. I think that the career of Wegee shows how one can take something they have to do, turn it into something they love to do, and make it great.
Factual Information From Wikipedia
“In my particular case I didn’t wait ‘til somebody gave me a job or something, I went and created a job for myself—freelance photographer. And what I did, anybody else can do. What I did simply was this: I went down to Manhattan Police Headquarters and for two years I worked without a police card or any kind of credentials. When a story came over a police teletype, I would go to it. The idea was I sold the pictures to the newspapers. And naturally, I picked a story that meant something.” Weegee stated about beginning his freelance career.
Most of his notable photographs were taken with very basic press photographer equipment and methods of the era, a 4x5 Speed Graphic camera preset at f/16 at 1/200 of a second, with flashbulbs and a set focus distance of ten feet. His work originally was informed by the crimes of New York City, as that is what he did for a living. He developed his photos in the trunk of his car, so that he could get them to the newspapers quickly, which is one thought of how he earned his nickname– because he got to the sites so quickly, almost as if he could predict the crimes. He later used lenses that he made to distort photos, including a famous one of Marilyn Monroe, and used the lenses in a film sequence as well. In the 1960’s he travelled through Europe where he photographed nude subjects.
I like the stark contrast of his work, and feel that it portrays as much emotion as fact. It also seems that he could be credited as the first paparazzi, because while he photographed a variety of subjects, he knew that if it was a person of interest, the photo would sell. I think that the career of Wegee shows how one can take something they have to do, turn it into something they love to do, and make it great.
Factual Information From Wikipedia