The first comprehensive biography of Weegee—photographer, “psychic,” ultimate New Yorker—from Christopher Bonanos, author of Instant: The Story of Polaroid. Arthur Fellig’s ability to arrive at a crime scene just as the cops did was so uncanny that he renamed himself “Weegee,” claiming that he functioned as a human Ouija board. Weegee documented better than any other photographer the crime, grit, and complex humanity of midcentury New York City. In Flash, we get a portrait not only of the man (both flawed and deeply talented, with generous appetites for publicity, women, and hot pastrami) but also of the fascinating time and place that he occupied. From self-taught immigrant kid to newshound to art-world darling to latter-day caricature—moving from the dangerous streets of New York City to the celebrity culture of Los Angeles and then to Europe for a quixotic late phase of experimental photography and filmmaking—Weegee lived a life just as worthy of documentation as the scenes he captured. With Flash, we have an unprecedented and ultimately moving view of the man now regarded as an innovator and a pioneer, an artist as well as a newsman, whose photographs are among most powerful images of urban existence ever made.

When Naked City was published in 1945, it was an instant success and inspired a Hollywood film. Naked City is Weegee's unflinching look at his beloved New York City through photos by turns ironic, hilarious, seamy and brutal. Photographing the city at all hours and in all its guises, Weegee created a thrilling, lonely and candid portrait, and a style that was to inspire younger photographers, not least Diane Arbus. Steidl's facsimile of Naked City carefully recreates the original book, bringing to life an object that is in form and spirit as close as possible to the first edition, and of which Weegee would be proud.

A graphic biography of an American street photographer infamous for adjusting the position of dead bodies at crime scenes to make his photographs more artful.

During his storied career as the quintessential New York photojournalist, Weegee explored the city's least glamorous pockets, depicting brutal crimes, horrific accidents, tenement dwellers, street vendors, and mischievous kids. And although his perspective was often dark and cynical, he was also tremendously sentimental about his subjects' hard lives. This unique guide offers a series of excursions through Weegee's stamping grounds, from the Bowery to Midtown, the West Side to the East, and with a little Brooklyn thrown in. Divided into eleven neighbourhood sections, it includes contemporary and period maps to aid the intrepid explorer or casual rambler as they retrace Weegee's steps from murder scene to car wreck to street fight. Best of all, it features hundreds of photographs - many never-before published and all drawn from the archives of the International Center of Photography - that reinforce Weegee's lasting vision of New York as a city both tough and resilient, a city that never sleeps. Published in association with International Center of Photography. AUTHORS: Philomena Mariani is the director of Publication at the International Center of Photography and co-editor of Hiroshima: Ground Zero 1945. Christopher George is an archivist and resident expert on Weegee at the international Center of Photography. 270 photographs

Offers a collection of photographs by the controversial photojournalist that chronicles the seamy underside of life in New York City, from the 1930s to the 1960s. Reprint.

In 1946, a year after the runaway success of Naked City, Weegee published his affectionate but sharp appraisal of the citizens of New York.Weegee's People presents a true cross-section of New Yorkers, from the photographer's cherished street people to the rich dames who frequented the Metropolitan Opera. This facsimile is a painstaking recreation of the original book, and follows the success of other facsimiles printed by Steidl including Moï Ver's Paris (2003) and Jakob Tuggener's Fabrik (2003).

“While Berenice Abbott, Margaret Bourke-White, and Alfred Steiglitz photographed New York's sleek skyscrapers, Arthur Fellig (called Weegee) documented the seamy underside of depression-era New York. In this extraordinary book, Richard Meyer and Anthony Lee tell a gripping tale, filled with historical detail about Weegee's transformation from freelance newspaper photographer to fine artist with the publication of his enormously successful book Naked City, in 1945.”—Cécile Whiting, author of Pop L.A.: Art and the City in the 1960s “Lee and Meyer return Weegee to his 'working world' by exploring the multiple contexts of his production-the Photo League, the tabloids, the exhibition galleries, and the book market. The volume adds an important dimension to our understanding of how Weegee straddled the worlds of popular culture, photojournalism, and left politics."—Miles Orvell, author of American Photography and John Vachon's America: Photographs and Letters from the Depression to World War II (UC Press) “Groundbreaking. Anthony Lee and Richard Meyer delve deeply into a rich archive of media and exhibition history, criticism, and biography to arrive at original interpretations of the most enigmatic photographer in modern visual and print culture.”—Jordana Mendelson, author of Documenting Spain: Artists, Exhibition Culture, and the Modern Nation, 1929-1939