New York Noir: Crime Photos from the Daily News Archive

by William Hannigan

Some of the century's most recognizable criminals and their dirty work are featured in this compelling collection of more than 130 images culled from the Daily News photo vaults. Original.

Genres: True Crime, Photography, Crime, Nonfiction, Art

160 pages, Hardcover

First published November 20, 1999

Reviews

[Joanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a coffee table book for everyone. I truly enjoyed glancing back in time. Many of the photos were hard to see, some made you wonder what lead up to the resulting stills.

[Laura K · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent pictures! I love these kinds of books, bits of history for us to read forever.

[Joanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really, really enjoyed this book- mostly becasue my grandpa was Osmund LeViness, one of the featured photojournalists. My eldest daughter is in college for photojournalism.. and she proudly cares for her great-grandpa's cameras- the ones he used to take the pictures featured in this book. My dad, his son, had two big, fat albums full of grandpa's pictures. Sadly, the house my dad lived in burned to the ground in 2000, and the photos were lost. When I came across this book, I immediatly went online and ordered one for my now 80 yr old dad... to be able to see his dad's work again will delight him greatly.
I agree, most heartily, with the paragraph on page 12- Weegee was not the only very talented photographer of that time... my grandpa was amazing. I am proud that was his only grand-daughter, and still have pictures of me and my brothers, taken by my wonderful grandpa. I am also very proud that my daughter is following in his footsteps.

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too many photos of people coming and going from courtrooms and police stations for my taste but otherwise some excellent vintage photos dating from 1920's to 1950's. Interesting to me is the seemingly unlimited access photographers used to have and that papers would actually publish photos like these. At the end of the book is a paragraph about the people/events in each photo. Why they didn't put this info next to the corresponding photo is just bad design, I went through the whole book wondering more about each photo only to find the info I wanted lumped together at the end. Also, the cover photo is photo-shopped to add the flash of the bulb(the original is inside), to me this seems like heresy when you are presenting historic photos.

[Mab · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good book but a little hardcore when it comes to the photos. Some of the photos are truly amazing in that they really seem like photos out of a movie. Other photos showed the terrible business of murder realistically and they was hard to stomach. As a huge fan of Double Indemnity this book was enjoyable. I am always fascinated by the 30's "pre-code" era. I can see that the media propaganda was not in full swing yet.

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's something eerily beautiful about these photos of crime scenes, criminals, and court rooms. The direct, prosaic quality of the imagery has an enigmatic loveliness all its own, and the historic shots have been immensely useful as photo reference for period hair, clothing, and body types.