Weegee: Murder Is My Business

For an intense decade between 1935 and 1946, Weegee (1899–1968) was one of the most relentlessly inventive figures in American photography. His graphically dramatic and often lurid photographs of New York crimes and news events set the standard for what has become known as tabloid journalism. Freelancing for a variety of New York newspapers and photo agencies, and later working as a stringer for the short-lived liberal daily PM (1940–48), Weegee established a way of combining photographs and texts that was distinctly different from that promoted by other picture magazines, such as LIFE. Utilizing other distribution venues, Weegee also wrote extensively (including his autobiographical Naked City, published in 1945) and organized his own exhibitions at the Photo League. This exhibition draws upon the extensive Weegee Archive at ICP and includes environmental recreations of Weegee's apartment and exhibitions. The exhibition is organized by ICP Chief Curator Brian Wallis.

100 Items
  • With Bomb
  • The Genius of the Camera
  • Investigator, (who looks like & is Weegee) at Manhattan Police Hdqs, looks over fragments of broken glass, & metal from scene of bombings, for clues, in 2 bombings at German Consulate Bldg, & Daily Worker, note piece of wood, from German Consulate Bl
  • Policy + Numbers Raid
  • Loot
  • My Studio--A Patrol Wagon
  • [Weegee covering the morning line-up at police headquarters, New York]
  • [Weegee’s New York Police Department press pass]
  • [Check for two murders]
  • [Weegee lying on bed in his studio, New York]
  • [Weegee lying on bed in his studio, New York]
  • [Police officer handcuffing Weegee, New York]
  • [Weegee being searched for concealed weapons and cigarettes at station house, New York]
  • On the line up platform at police headquarters
  • [Weegee getting a mug shot at station house, New York]
  • Behind Bars... For Being a Dope...
  • [Police examining body of a "hold-up man," New York]
  • [Bystanders looking at the body of Salvatore Sutera, New York]
  • At an East Side Murder
  • [Police and bystanders with body of Stanley Sandler, a passenger in an automobile that crashed into a Third Avenue El pillar and caught fire, New York]
  • [Suspect being transferred from police headquarters, New York]
  • [Auto accident victim, New York]
  • [Weegee and police officers looking at body]
  • [Weegee and police with body of longshoreman David “the Beetle” Beadle outside the Spot Bar and Grill, New York]
  • [Chalk outline]
  • [Body of Anthony Izzo, killed by off-duty polceman Eligio Sarro, New York]
  • [Manuel Jiminez lies wounded in the lap of Manuelda Hernandez, New York]
  • On the Spot
  • Their First Murder
  • [Body with "Dead on Arrival" tag]
  • Balcony Seats at a Murder
  • Murder on the roof
  • [Weegee inspecting trunk containing body of William Hessler, who had been stabbed to death, Brooklyn]
  • [Weegee inspecting trunk that contained body of William Hessler, who had been stabbed to death, Brooklyn]
  • [Body of Dominick Didato, New York]
  • [Installation view of "Weegee: Murder Is My Business" at the Photo League, New York]
  • [1,250 revelers continuing the trip after three women were trampled to death in excursion-boat stampede, New York]
  • [Woman realizing that the blanketed-covered body is that of her mother, one of three women trampled to death in excursion-boat stampede, New York]
  • [Woman crying after three women were trampled to death in excursion-boat stampede, New York]
  • [Picnic's end for several thousand people after three women were trampled to death in excursion-boat stampede, New York]
  • [Police officer and lodge member looking at blanket-covered body of woman trampled to death in excursion-boat stampede, New York]
  • [Bystanders looking at blanket-covered body of woman trampled to death in excursion-boat stampede, New York]
  • [Installation view of "Weegee: Murder Is My Business" at the Photo League, New York]
  • [Henrietta Torres and daughter Ada watching as another daughter and her son die in house fire, Brooklyn]
  • [Landlord Henry Geller weeping over the loss of his first-floor tobacco shop, which was destroyed by a fire, New York]
  • [Older woman descending ladder after apartment building fire, New York]
  • Fire Rescue
  • [Ice-covered firemen extinguishing a fire, Coney Island, Brooklyn]
  • Under the El at 14th Street
  • San Gennaro Lights
  • [Two girls on a truck]
  • [Boy in chair on sidewalk]
  • Game of Lynching IV
  • [Grocery store, Harlem]
  • [Man writing in comment book for "Weegee: Murder Is My Business" at the Photo League, New York]
  • [Weegee touching up a photograph of Manuel Jiminez with nail polish for "Weegee: Murder Is My Business II" at the Photo League, New York]
  • [Installation view of "Weegee: Murder Is My Business" at the Photo League, New York]
  • [Installation view of "Weegee: Murder Is My Business" at the Photo League, New York]
  • [Installation view of "Weegee: Murder Is My Business" at the Photo League, New York]
  • [Installation view of "Weegee: Murder Is My Business" at the Photo League, New York]
  • [Installation view of "Weegee: Murder Is My Business" at the Photo League, New York]
  • [Installation view of "Weegee: Murder Is My Business" at the Photo League, New York]
  • [Henry Rosen and Harvey Stemmer arrested for bribing Brooklyn College basketball players, New York]
  • [Car accident victim Jean Sledziski waiting for medical attention, New York]
  • [Man taken into police custody during Harlem riot, New York]
  • [Rocco the Great Dane with body of chef Luigi Rivieccio]
  • [Operators of race wire-service arrested at their headquarters in gambling raid, New York]
  • Simply Add Boiling Water
  • [Accident on upper roadway of Grand Central Terminal, New York]
  • [Police officer and assistant removing body of Reception Hospital ambulance driver Morris Linker from East River, off Welfare Island, New York]
  • [Policeman holding kittens rescued from fire, New York]
  • [Billie Dauscha and Mabel Sidney, Bowery entertainers, New York]
  • [Shorty, the Bowery Cherub, New Year's Eve at Sammy's Bar, New York]
  • [Inflating Santa Claus for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, New York]
  • [After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Times Square, New York]
  • [Celebration for return of kidnapped boy Jimmy Di Maggio, Lower East Side, New York]
  • [Time Is Short, Little Italy, New York]
  • [Crowd at Coney Island beach, Brooklyn]
  • [Afternoon crowd at Coney Island, Brooklyn]
  • A Stitch in Time--at Coney Island
  • [Girl on lifeguard station, Coney Island, Brooklyn]
  • [Park Department attendant with lost child, Coney Island, Brooklyn]
  • [Black Buick with dead passenger pulled out of the Harlem River, New York]
  • [Aftermath of a street fight, New York]
  • [Wife of murder victim collapses in the arms of policemen upon arrival to scene, New York]
  • ["Factory Frankie" Ahearn and Marty Powell arrested for criminal association]
  • [Body of girl hit by car on Park Avenue, New York]
  • [Auto accident victim, New York]
  • [Young man smoking cigarette in crashed car while waiting for ambulance, New York]
  • [Charles Sodokoff and Arthur Webber using their top hats to hide their faces, New York]
  • [Tenement sleeping, New York]
  • [Tenement sleeping during heat spell, Lower East Side, New York]
  • [Children playing in water sprayed from open fire hydrant, Lower East Side, New York]
  • Don't Waste Water
  • [Police officer talking to Dorothy Reportella after she crashed into a truck, New York]
  • Weegee
  • [Weegee at his typewriter in the trunk of his 1938 Chevy]
  • [Anthony Esposito, booked on suspicion of killing a policeman, New York]
  • My Police Radio Car
  • [Weegee gets a tip from a PM news seller, New York]