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.

The ultimate collection of Weegee's shocking tabloid photographs, from the ultimate tabloid city.

“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

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.

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).

Accompanies the exhibition "Naked Hollywood: Weegee in Los Angeles" held at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, MOCA Grand Avenue, Nov. 13, 2011-Feb. 27, 2012.

Weegee's First book, 'Naked City' (1953), was a runaway success and made him a celebrity who suddenly had assignments from Life and Vogue. He was among the first to fully realize the camera's unique power to capture split-second drama and exaggerated emotion. Regarded as some of the most powerful images of the 20th-century photography, Weegee's work now resides in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.