Weegee speaks on an old LP

Artist Laura Levine was recently picking through 15,000 LPs she purchased for her Phoenicia, New York antique shop The Mystery Spot. She came across this treasure, Famous Photographers Tell How. It features advice from Henri-Carter Bresson, Bert Stern, Tana Hoban, Arhur Rothstein, and, my fave, incredible 1940s crime photographer Weegee, of Naked City (1945) fame. Levine and Ted Barron kindly posted select MP3s from the LP at the Boogie Woogie Flu blog. Choice Weegee quotes:

"Now the easiest kind of a job was a murder, because the stiff would be laying on the ground. He couldn't get up and walk away and get tempermental and he would be good for at least two hours."

"I will walk many times with friends down the street and they'll say 'Hey, Weegee. Here's a drunk or two drunks laying on the gutter' I take one quick look at that and say 'They lack character.' So, even a drunk must be a masterpiece!"

Weegee Speaks

[#1 posted by Halloween Jack, June 22, 2009 11:51 AM]

Wow, he really did look like Joe Pesci.

[#2 posted by cory, June 22, 2009 12:32 PM]

So, even a drunk must be a masterpiece!

What's interesting about this quote is that I'll bet you hear the exact opposite advice from a modern photogropher (or from artists working in many other kinds of media). The advice you would be more likely to hear is that great photographers are great because they took lots of photos of just about everything, skillfully mind you, and then edited what they took down to a few fantastic ones.

In other words, take a few pictures of those drunks just in case you get something really amazing.

If you look at the camera he's holding, you can probably imagine why the philosophy has changed: taking a lot of digital photographs is a lot easier than taking them with that thing.

[#3 posted by Anonymous, June 22, 2009 12:33 PM]

Fun fact:

Weegee was Kubrick's publicity still photographer on "Dr. Strangelove", which is why Peter Sellers chose to use that particular accent.

[#4 posted by Tdawwg, June 22, 2009 12:37 PM]

Well, Weegee did take comparatively tons of pictures, albeit much less than we'd be able to do today with digital photography. His point is more about street photography: how everything on the street is grist to the photographer's mill, doesn't need to be monumental, "artistic," or even interesting, etc.: even drunks lying in a gutter can convey an aesthetic experience when photographed properly.

[#5 posted by Anonymous, June 22, 2009 12:55 PM]

#2 and the marginal cost of a 4"x5" negative was MUCH higher than 35mm film, much less the cost of a few mega pixels.

[#6 posted by Tdawwg, June 22, 2009 1:43 PM]

@ anonymous, which accent? For which character? Do you have a link or any further information? That's a fascinating anecdote....

[#7 posted by jfrancis, June 22, 2009 1:53 PM]

Was curious about the 'Balcony Seats at a Murder' photo he discussed. Found this 'then and now' photo of the locale...

http://weegeeweegeeweegee.blogspot.com/2008/05/balcony-seats-at-murder.html

[#8 posted by mackenzi, June 22, 2009 2:51 PM]

Somebody unplugged my computer. I'm scared!! I need cybercomfort.

[#9 posted by gber, June 22, 2009 2:57 PM]

I saw WeeGee exhibit in Milan last year. I found the background stories of his pictures far more interesting than the photographs themselves - most of which were compositionally and emotionally flat. Maybe they needed the added punch of headlines above them: "Headless corpse rides the E Train!".

[#10 posted by Ugly Canuck, June 22, 2009 3:17 PM]

The man was a news photographer, first and foremost. His primary motivation was not wholly aesthetic: his medium was the primarily the printed page of the newspapers of the times: almost a type of ephemera, really. There is a pragmatic vector to Weegee's art.

My own experience of observing photographers has led me to believe that this art, more than any other, is dependent upon the artist's simply "having an eye", or a talent, if you prefer - it's something which training or technical competence with the equipment simply can not provide. Particularly so, it seems to me, for those photographers working in the "street-life" moment, with little or no control over the lighting or subject - news photographers, in other words. I'm also thinking here of Bresson,in particular, as Weegee's cousin in the art of the capture of the (apparently?) unposed moment. Both also worked in B & W.

Pesci's portrayal of Weegee for Tinseltown:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105187/

A link for Bresson:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Cartier-Bresson

[#11 posted by plainsaman, June 22, 2009 7:29 PM]

Regarding #2, most photographers new to digital shoot WAY too much (the infamous 'shotgun' method) and tend to depend on quantity saving their bacon. Great artists in any medium also usually have a little visual self-discipline.

[#12 posted by Anonymous, June 22, 2009 9:53 PM]

@TDAWWG: I'm a different anonymous, but can answer your question. Kubrick did hire Weegee to do still photography on the set of Strangelove. Sellers loved the way Weegee spoke, so Kubrick sat down and recorded some conversation with him and Sellers used Weegee as the basis for the good Dr. Strangelove. Take a listen and hear for yourself!

[#13 posted by Annieartist, June 23, 2009 4:37 PM]

And...
Arthur Rothstein hired Kubrick to work at Look Magazine!

[#14 posted by Anonymous, July 6, 2009 1:09 PM]

I transcribed the Henri Cartier Bresson interview into a written word document and you can find it on my site http://ericamcdonaldphoto.com under ’scribbling in the dark’, along with the other photographers’ talks. It was easier for me to fully digest what he was saying by reading than listening alone, and I figured it would be good to have it out there for anyone wanting to reference it down the line, as well as for anyone who has trouble with HCB’s accent. If I get time, I’ll transcribe the Weegee one as well.