In class I learned of a famous photographer called Weegee, also known as Arthur Fellig, who had an interest unlike others: he was obsessed with crime. And, in an article I found while doing more research on Weegee written by Katherine Brooks, she details how Weegee embodied the crimes of New York in the 1900s through his photography. Due to the fact that he was almost always the first photographer at the scene of a crime, Arthur earned himself the nickname Weegee, an appropriation of the word “Ouija”. His images were seedy, but they captivating to all those who viewed them making them privy to a police investigation that was not focused on the tragedy, but on the human aspects of the crime scene. These photos helped in spurring Americas own dark captivation with crime. The article provides many of Weegee’s artwork of some of the crimes he was able to capture with his camera for all to see showing a side of crime that people had not been exposed to before. Which is why Arthur Fellig’s work has played such a huge role in the artistic world.
A Dark Obsession with Crime
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