WeeGee

 (1899-1968)
 

Arthur (Usher) Fellig known by his pseudonym Weegee, was a photographer and photojournalist, known for his stark black and white street photography in New York City.
Weegee worked in Manhattan's Lower East Side as a press photographer during the 1930s and 1940s and developed his signature style by following the city's emergency services and documenting their activity. Much of his work depicted unflinchingly realistic scenes of urban life, crime, injury and death. Weegee published photographic books and also worked in cinema, initially making his own short films and later collaborating with film directors such as Jack Donohue and Stanley Kubrick.

Coney Island at noon Saturday, July 5, 1942

According to Miles Barth, co-author of the book Weegee's World, Coney Island was a bit off our lensman's beat. "When it came to warm weather, Weegee was the last person you could imagine in shorts and sneakers and a T-shirt," Barth told me. "It was against everything he understood. He was doing fires, floods, car wrecks, murders. What interested him was crime."
"Whatever it took to get the shot, Weegee did it," Barth says. "That was part of his genius." Barth has it from Louie Liotta, Weegee's longtime assistant, that the boss climbed up on a lifeguard station and screamed and danced until everybody started to look. "And when they did," says Barth, "he took the photograph. It was that simple."