Weegee American Dead Thesis

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Shay Peleg English 105 Mr. Greene 4 December 2012 Weegee: The Paparazzi of the American Dead Weegee, otherwise known as Arthur Fellig, was born in the Ukraine (Gurewitschpara 3). While being a genius, Weegee was also a hard worker and would do anything to get a picture (Gurewitschpara 6). Most of the photographs he got were not simple. Some of his photographs even have something very complex within them (Gurewitschpara 7). In particular, Weegee had a fascination for American crime. He received his nickname as an allusion to the Ouija board because he arrived so early to crime scenes; indeed, he had a radio connected to the New York City police channel (leegallery para 2). In his 1945 book of photographs, Naked City,…show more content…
. I think normally weegee would be trying to make a political statement based on his bio (cutter para 10). As we all know weegee enjoys taking photos of segregation and racial bias attacks(cutter para 10) . In this case I think it is a kind of political statement. At those days crime was rampart. I think weegee was trying to say that people are dying and no one cares. He was also trying to show a different side of New York. A more realistic side of New York .Crime is here and it is not pretty. Death was his business or so people say ( cutter para 13). As cutter said “Weegee was fascinated by our fascination.” (cutter para 13). I feel as if weegee is seeing something else in america and, he is trying to show that to us. He most likely thinks America is not as it seems and, it is more violent then it seems. America is not as safe as we think it is. Weegee is showing us the other side of America (the criminal side)(hawthorn para…show more content…
While weegee does not seem to be biased I do know that in general weegee seems to focus only on the bad , That is only when he shoots pictures of the dead and, of horrible events of some magnitude. Weegee gets to the crime scenes early “Weegee, Fellig's pseudonym derived from a Ouija board (chosen for his ability to arrive at crime scenes before police) set a new standard for tabloid photojournalism with his distinct and dramatic black and white street photography. “(madison para 2). I think the reason why he gets there early is A. He has a very large ego so he wants to always be the first to take the picture. B. He doesn’t want the police to be in the picture( although he has made some exceptions to that rule. So I think in this case if the police was there then it was most likely left out . I think he also left out the view of the location perhaps to protect someone or himself. Why does Weegee have a fixation with dead people? . As Weegee said “murder is my business” (hawthorne para 2). I think one of the major reasons Weegee prefers taking pictures of the dead is they don’t move and, can’t complain. Weegee as he says in his own words is spellbound by the mystery of murder(biography.com para 1). So I think we can agree weegee sees something in the dead that we don’t but we can perhaps can an impressions of what he wants to show us in his pictures. He wants to show us the different side of new York . People can die , People can
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