WEEGEE Jake Zenger 5 th Hour Jan. 6, 2016

BIOGRAPHY OF WEEGEE (FAMILY & EDUCATION)  Weegee was born June 12, 1899, in Austria, under the name Usher Fellig. Shortly after he was born his father left for America, where he was a Rabbi while saving enough money to send for the rest of his family. At the age of ten, Weegee with his mother and three brothers, finally arrived to America. At Ellis Island, Weegee's name was changed from Usher to Arthur.  As far as education, Weegee made it through the eight grade with no problem at all. However, the family needed money and Weegee was needed to help work. He worked a lot of odd jobs

BIOGRAPHY OF WEEGEE (PHOTOGRAPHY)  He was a free-lance photographer. Free-lance photographer- a photographer who doesn’t work for anyone, but will sell to anyone who wants to buy his pictures.  Weegee worked on his own as a free-lance photographer for the next ten years. He started to work out of Manhattan Police Headquarters, he would arrive around midnight and check the Teletype machine to see if any stories had broke.  After a few years he decided he didn't want to wait for the news to come over the Teletype. He bought himself a 1938 Chevy Coupe, a press card, and he was allowed to have a police radio in the car. (the only press photographer ever allowed to have a police radio in their car)  Weegee's car was his home away from home, his office on the road. In the trunk he kept everything he would need, including a portable dark-room, extra cameras, flash bulbs, extra loaded holders, a typewriter, cigars, salami and a change of clothes.

PICTURES OF HIS  Many of his pictures were of crime scenes especially of dead people.  So this is an average picture of weegee’s.  As you can see there is a police man in this photo, so that means that he was allowed to be at crime scenes.

PICTURES OF HIS (PART II)  His pictures were in black and white, so you can tell that he lived before colored pictures were common.  It was taken in New York City.

REFLECTION  I thought it was cool that he only had one name…Weegee.  He took pictures of crime scenes, which most photographers don’t do. That was cool too.  He also didn’t work for a company, so he had an unsteady income, which would be hard to live off of.  He also had a crazy childhood if you couldn’t tell from his biography slides.

REFERENCES   egee.jpg egee.jpg  content/uploads/2011/03/weegee-as-baby2.jpg content/uploads/2011/03/weegee-as-baby2.jpg  MI/AAAAAAAADKM/Ysa1dVMShiY/s400/weegee-muette.jpg MI/AAAAAAAADKM/Ysa1dVMShiY/s400/weegee-muette.jpg