MAY 18–SEPTEMBER 2, 2012
1133 Avenue of the Americas at 43rd Street, New York, NY 10036
Phone: 212.857.0000
Hours
Tuesday–Wednesday: 10 am–6pm
Thursday–Friday: 10 am–8 pm
Saturday–Sunday: 10 am–6 pm
Closed: Mondays
For an intense decade between 1935 and 1946, Weegee (1899–1968) was one of the most relentlessly inventive figures in American photography. His graphically dramatic and often lurid photographs of New York crimes and news events set the standard for what has become known as tabloid journalism. Freelancing for a variety of New York newspapers and photo agencies, and later working as a stringer for the short-lived liberal daily PM (1940–48), Weegee established a way of combining photographs and texts that was distinctly different from that promoted by other picture magazines, such as LIFE. Utilizing other distribution venues, Weegee also wrote extensively (including his autobiographical Naked City, published in 1945) and organized his own exhibitions at the Photo League. This exhibition draws upon the extensive Weegee Archive at ICP and includes environmental recreations of Weegee’s apartment and exhibitions. The exhibition is organized by ICP Chief Curator Brian Wallis.
“This exhibition affirms that Weegee brought to street photography a new, often shocking vitality. The combination of grit, humanity, intensity, merciless opportunism and spatial precariousness…regularly resulted in pictures that you can’t stop looking at…and don’t soon forget.”
— The New York Times
For more info, please visit: http://www.icp.org/museum/exhibitions/weegee-murder-my-business