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Weegee
Fin des années 30, New York, Lower East Side, le terrain de chasse privilégié de Weegee (de son vrai nom Arthur Fellig). Dans sa voiture, une radio branchée sur les fréquences de la police, Weegee, cigare, imper et chapeau mou, photographie à tombeau ouvert la vie nocturne et brûlante des bas-fonds de Big Apple : accidents, corps carbonisés, incendies, "passants-voyeurs"... Mais aussi, déshérités, Noirs, petits bonheurs... Weegee est l'observateur - au vitriol - des inégalités et des discriminations de l'Amérique de la Grande Dépression.
Les auteurs nous proposent d'accompagner Weegee le solitaire dans une séance de shooting comme en apnée, vertigineuse et crue, au cœur de la société américaine d'avant-guerre, déviante et corrompue. Weegee, un photographe de presse atypique et célèbre (Life, Vogue, The Daily Mirror...), pour une histoire vraie menée tambour battant ! Wauter Mannaert, jeune dessinateur belge, au dessin expressif nous régale de l'ambiance noire et glauque du New York des années 30 !
Les auteurs nous proposent d'accompagner Weegee le solitaire dans une séance de shooting comme en apnée, vertigineuse et crue, au cœur de la société américaine d'avant-guerre, déviante et corrompue. Weegee, un photographe de presse atypique et célèbre (Life, Vogue, The Daily Mirror...), pour une histoire vraie menée tambour battant ! Wauter Mannaert, jeune dessinateur belge, au dessin expressif nous régale de l'ambiance noire et glauque du New York des années 30 !
126 pages, Hardcover
First published August 17, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
February 5, 2019
Arthur Fellig, better known as Weegee, was a street photographer for New York’s tabloid press during the 1930s and 1940s. He worked primarily in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. He is mainly known for getting to the scene of a crime before anyone else, and also—for setting up photographs at those scenes for greater effect. Yes, the photography was terrific, and he is now famous for the quality of his work generally—shown in galleries, collected in books—but infamous for sometimes manipulating the crime scenes so he could get a great shot. Max de Radiguès, along with his co-creator Wauter Mannaert, thought this complicated figure would be an interesting subject for a biography, and they were right, and they never excuse or romanticize him. The problem is that we never get to see any of his photographs (which were available in the Spanish edition). And if you want to read biographies to inspire and “better yourself,” well, forget this one; WeeGee is basically a schmuck throughout.
I knew about WeeGee and had seen a collection of his street photography, but it was not until I was in the middle of this book that I knew him from another source: He was (in part) the “inspiration” for the creepy, problematic Harlen Maguire character (played by Jude Law) in The Road to Perdition, although in the movie Maguire is a psychopath. The photographs in Harlen Maguire’s apartment in the movie, I discovered, are real-life 1930s crime scene pictures, some taken by Weegee himself. Weegee claimed to have snapped 5,000 murders over the course of his career and in de Radiguès’ book, is seen as psychologically affected by this in the long run (no surprise!).
Since he was so often early to the crime scene, he claimed some psychic power—and even called himself Ouija, or WeeGee--but many think he just had inside connections to the police and even to some of the gangs, particularly the Jewish gangs. He used the nickname in part to hide his Jewish identity.
I’m not gonna post any of his murder photography, ethically compromised in so many ways, though you can find it easily online (yeah, I had seen it before, and looked at it again, sure, I’m a tough guy). Over time, he took the advice of friends to photograph the gritty lower East side and became famous—not infamous—for those photographs.
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/ga...
He also wanted to be famous, and flew to Hollywood to become a celebrity photographer for a time, but de Radiguès never ever attempts to resuscitate him, morally. He was, in this book, a jerk to the end. And that's interesting, in the abstract at least, isn't it, to read a bio of schmuck? No, okay, then forget it. But I think the book worked for me because it got me to look further into WeeGee’s problematic life and work, and I have come to really be interested in de Radiguès’ never-straightforward or predictable work (Bastard, Moose, Hobo Mom), but it won’t be for everyone.
I knew about WeeGee and had seen a collection of his street photography, but it was not until I was in the middle of this book that I knew him from another source: He was (in part) the “inspiration” for the creepy, problematic Harlen Maguire character (played by Jude Law) in The Road to Perdition, although in the movie Maguire is a psychopath. The photographs in Harlen Maguire’s apartment in the movie, I discovered, are real-life 1930s crime scene pictures, some taken by Weegee himself. Weegee claimed to have snapped 5,000 murders over the course of his career and in de Radiguès’ book, is seen as psychologically affected by this in the long run (no surprise!).
Since he was so often early to the crime scene, he claimed some psychic power—and even called himself Ouija, or WeeGee--but many think he just had inside connections to the police and even to some of the gangs, particularly the Jewish gangs. He used the nickname in part to hide his Jewish identity.
I’m not gonna post any of his murder photography, ethically compromised in so many ways, though you can find it easily online (yeah, I had seen it before, and looked at it again, sure, I’m a tough guy). Over time, he took the advice of friends to photograph the gritty lower East side and became famous—not infamous—for those photographs.
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/ga...
He also wanted to be famous, and flew to Hollywood to become a celebrity photographer for a time, but de Radiguès never ever attempts to resuscitate him, morally. He was, in this book, a jerk to the end. And that's interesting, in the abstract at least, isn't it, to read a bio of schmuck? No, okay, then forget it. But I think the book worked for me because it got me to look further into WeeGee’s problematic life and work, and I have come to really be interested in de Radiguès’ never-straightforward or predictable work (Bastard, Moose, Hobo Mom), but it won’t be for everyone.
August 25, 2019
Part of a rash of comic-semi biographies I've come across lately, good enough to inspire me to look more into the subject but oddly flat in places - our titular photographer is consistently portrayed, but it's a warts-and-all version that is lacking some context or commentary for the novice.
July 30, 2018
If your subject is an asshole whose work appeared decades ago and is not necessarily a household name today, I think you have to work really hard to justify doing a whole book about him. This effort falls short.
Weegee is a jerk in his professional and personal lives to pretty much everyone around him. As near as I can tell, the only thing he had going for him was taking some pretty startling pictures. But the publisher painfully explains in a postscript that they purposely chose to exclude the actual Weegee photos that appeared in the original French edition because, well, I should just go look them up on the internet.
The art and writing are serviceable, but by concentrating on just a few days in Weegee's life, do little to inform or pique my interest in this man. And they include dream sequences. As I just said in my last review (Audubon, On The Wings Of The World) I HATE dream sequences, especially in my nonfiction.
Weegee is a jerk in his professional and personal lives to pretty much everyone around him. As near as I can tell, the only thing he had going for him was taking some pretty startling pictures. But the publisher painfully explains in a postscript that they purposely chose to exclude the actual Weegee photos that appeared in the original French edition because, well, I should just go look them up on the internet.
The art and writing are serviceable, but by concentrating on just a few days in Weegee's life, do little to inform or pique my interest in this man. And they include dream sequences. As I just said in my last review (Audubon, On The Wings Of The World) I HATE dream sequences, especially in my nonfiction.
May 21, 2018
Although I had heard of Weegee, I really didn't know much about his life or photography...until I saw that Max de Radiguès and Wauter Mannaert's Weegee would be coming out in the spring. And that prompted me to do some reading up. This is a great graphic biography covering not the entire life of Arthur "Weegee" Fellig, but representative parts that capture what he was all about. I was familiar with de Radiguès's Moose from a couple of years ago, and this a very different kind of text. And I see that he has another book this fall coming out from Fantagraphics!
June 20, 2024
A graphic novel telling about WeeGee, the famous photographer of the 30-40"s. He was known for his photographs which often showed the upper class AND victims of auto crashes and shootings. He shot what he thought the papers would print. In this book, he wanted to be known outside of his NY neighborhood. Hollywood was his dream.
November 18, 2023
Great tale, I hope to write a full review shortly.
August 11, 2018
Impressionistic portrait of the legendary Weegee.
Excellent.
Excellent.
June 26, 2018
I read this in conjunction with "Flash The Making of Weegee the Famous" the new Weegee biography by Christopher Bonanos and they were fantastic companions.
Weegee Serial photographer is wonderfully atmospheric; visually portraying the parts of Weegee life that most people image - the cigar chomping, the interaction with the mob, the gruff demeanor, the sparse living conditions and the harsh treatment of women. Extremely evocative of the gritty 1920s and 1930s New York (and briefly Los Angeles) that Weegee thrived in.
Fantastic graphic memoir.
Weegee Serial photographer is wonderfully atmospheric; visually portraying the parts of Weegee life that most people image - the cigar chomping, the interaction with the mob, the gruff demeanor, the sparse living conditions and the harsh treatment of women. Extremely evocative of the gritty 1920s and 1930s New York (and briefly Los Angeles) that Weegee thrived in.
Fantastic graphic memoir.
July 14, 2018
This is a graphic biography of the crime photographer known as Weegee (so-called since he had an instinct like a Ouija board for being in the right place) during the height of his fame in the late 1930s to early 1940s. The artwork is well done and brings an immediacy to the underbelly of New York City and the contrast between the high and low life there.
January 15, 2019
A graphic novel of Weegee, the photographer whose news photos were eventually considered works of art.
March 16, 2017
Good biography in graphic novel of Weegee, the well known photographer of the (night)life of the New York of the forties. He is not portraited very sympathetically, but remains an interesting character. The graphics are good, noirish as could be expected.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews