When I think of a press photographer from the 1930s/1940s a particular image comes to mind: Huge press camera with equally massive flash; fedora; rumpled coat; possibly a cigar. This particular image was largely created by Usher Fellig – later Arthur Fellig and eventually Weegee.

According to Wikipedia:

Weegee was the pseudonym of Arthur (Usher) Fellig (June 12, 1899 – December 26, 1968), a photographer and photojournalist, known for his stark black and white street photography. Weegee worked in Manhattan, New York City’s Lower East Side, as a press photographer during the 1930s and 1940s, and he developed his signature style by following the city’s emergency services and documenting their activity. Much of his work depicted unflinchingly realistic scenes of urban life, crime, injury and death. Weegee published photographic books and also worked in cinema, initially making his own short films and later collaborating with film directors such as Jack Donohue and Stanley Kubrick.

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Weegee was certainly a fascinating, if somewhat eccentric character. He was a ruthless self-promoter (hence ‘Weegee the Famous’) who wasn’t afraid to stage a scene if it suited him. For example one of his most famous photographs, The Critic was certainly a setup.

His story is also rather sad. He seemed to badly want to transcend the type of street photography for which he was renowned, but was never able to do so. Towards the end of his life he ended up playing roles in ‘nudie cutie’ exploitation films.

It’s a fascinating story and well worth reading. Should Weegee be included in the pantheon of great photographers? Some of his photographs are certainly remarkable, but I’m not sure that I can really answer this question at the moment.

Flash. The Making of Weegee the Famous. By Christopher Bonanos.

I’m not entirely sure how I came across Aaron Siskind, but I think it’s probably through his good friend and fellow photographer Harry Callahan I looked around and found some of Siskind’s work on the Internet. I’d heard his name, but wasn’t familiar with his work. Or so I thought. As I looked through the pictures I realized that I must have, at some point, come across his work. Why? Well, because as I look at my own photographs I can see Siskind’s influence everywhere. Not that I have consciously tried to emulate his work. Rather I think that I must have seen some of his pictures at some point and unconsciously absorbed elements into my own.

Since I felt a close connection I decided that I needed to go beyond the small images on the internet and bought this book: “Aaron Siskind. Another Photographic Reality“. There’s a useful review of the book on Photo-eye Blog so I won’t duplicate here. Suffice it to say that I really love this book.

For a useful selection of Siskind’s work see his page at the International Center of Photography.

I just got my hands on a copy of this marvelous book. I won’t go into detail because there are many excellent reviews available online including:

• Provocative Generosity and the Joy of Scope: Meyerowitz’s “Where I Find Myself”
• Joel Meyerowitz: Where I Find Myself: A Lifetime Retrospective (An Elephant Book).
• Book Review: Where I Find Myself by Joel Meyerowitz (This one is not as positive as most of the others focusing on perceived problems with the quality of the book rather than the quality of the images).

It”s a large and heavy book that I found I either had to place on a table, or even better on a book stand. I found the quality of the reproductions to be excellent. I believe that Mr. Meyerowitz was heavily involved in the production of the book and the selection of images.

The choice of starting with the most recent work first and then working backwards (rather than the more usual starting with the oldest and working forward) was interesting, but after going through the book I found that I wanted to start at the end (i.e. with the oldest work) and read backwards towards the beginning. I found that this helped my understand how his work had evolved over time.

An evolved it certainly has. I find this one of the most impressive things about Mr. Meyerowitz: the way he has frequently re-invented himself. Many photographers find their niche and then stick with it for the rest of their careers. Not Mr. Meyerowitz. He started off in black and white and then became an early advocate of color. He began as a street photographer, but then moved into other genres including landscapes, portraits, still life. He started out using a 35mm camera, but later espoused large format. His reasoning for these changes is nicely explained in the book.

I was particularly impressed with his most recent work: a series of still life photographs. I’ve always liked still lifes, but have taken surprisingly few. The book has inspired me to try to do more.

There’s also an interesting Interview with Joel Meyerowitz: Where I find myself on Lenscratch.

A great book. I thoroughly enjoyed it!