05/10/07 137 W, 1 I - + 15 - 19 Weegee
Arthur Fellig turned tragedy into art in his black-and-white renderings of New York City crime scenes and car wrecks among other subjects. Weegee was his pseudonym, explains the Wikipedia entry, "a phonetic rendering of Ouija, due to his frequent arrival at scenes only minutes after crimes, fires or other emergencies were reported to authorities." Was his era a more sensational one than the present? Was the Big Apple more tolerant of photographers and flashbulbs? Today it's tough to shoot sorrow. Few are comfortable when a camera captures death or extreme injury. It may be legal, but it's rarely popular. Weegee later worked in Hollywood and even had a hand in Stanley Kubrick's great film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Click to enlarge or go here to see more: