Who was Ukrainian-Born American Photographer Weegee?

Usher Fellig, also known in his professional life as Weegee, was a well-known photojournalist who was born in 1899 in what is present day Ukraine. When he and his family moved to New York's Lower East Side in 1909, he changed his name to Arthur.

In 1913, Arthur began dabbling in photography by using a pony to explore the Lower East Side. The cost of the pony, however, precluded him from pursuing this line of work and at age 18, he started assisting a commercial photographer. Around the same time, Fellig became homeless and worked many odd jobs to support himself including dish washing, laboring and biscuit-making.

1921 presented Fellig's first big break: a job with the New York Times and their photo syndicate Wide World Photos. This job truly shaped his career and he began to find his style as an artist. In 1938, Weegee was the only New York newspaper reporter permitted to own and operate a police short-band radio, ensuring that he would make it to the scene of a crime before medical and crime personnel. He kept a darkroom in the trunk of his car to aid his short timeline and beat any other photographers and journalists to a final product. Oftentimes rushed, his stark photographs are easily recognizable for technical imperfections and no aesthetic appeal.

Made famous by his gritty, graphic and true-to-life New York City images, Weegee developed a niche following and eventually landed a spot in a show at the Modern Museum of Art in 1943. In addition, he was offered editorial assignments for both Life and Vogue magazines which gave him more credibility and access to the public.

Fellig's nickname "Weegee" is actually phonetically similar to the word "ouija", because of his timeliness in arriving to crime scenes or other emergencies.

1945's "Naked City" was his first book, which in turn inspired the 1948 movie of the same name. In 1946, Weegee moved to Hollywood and worked as both an actor and photographer and was a huge influence on Stanley Kubrik's "Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb".

The 1950s and 60s would lead Weegee to different photographic processes and ideas beginning with dabbling in panoramic photography. In addition, during his travels in Europe at the same time, he produced many of his now-famous photos of nudes, mostly taken along beaches.

Even after his death in 1968, Weegee was as prolific as he was in life. "The Weegee Portfolio Incorporated" was formed in 1980 and produced many replicas (using original negatives) of the photos Weegee was most famous for. In 1992, Joe Pesci played a character named Bernzy in the film "The Public Eye", which was probably inspired by Fellig.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weegee

"Weegee's World" - http://museum.icp.org/museum/collections/special/weegee/