Weegee, Intermission, November 25, 1941
Weegee, Intermission, November 25, 1941
PM Daily, November 25, 1941, p. 22
PM Daily, November 25, 1941, p. 22
“‘Intermission’ I made this at the opening of the Met Opera Season.. I wanted to get something different than the usuall (sic) Society celebrities… noticing a lot of men in military uniforms mingling with the high hats… during intermission I saw this row of hats in one of the cloack (sic) rooms…. So I photographed it…” Typed caption on verso.
Fascinating. I’m used to seeing wire copy on the reverse of early press photographs that are far less “personal” and more “story” aimed or informative for the print reporter. Did Weegee write explanations like this on many of his photos? I am also impressed with his technical notes…would a print reporter using his photo even care? Was Weegee just keeping good notes for his own purposes?
Jim Linderman
Dull Tool Dim Bulb
Hello,
Thank you for writing.
On the back of many of Weegee’s photos in the 1930s and 40s he wrote captions, in ink.
Sometimes the captions were as short as one word, “Murder,” or sentence fragments, “Jumped from car,” and sometimes they were paragraph length and would fill most of a small 7″ x 9″ photo. I think most of the writing on the prints is factual, and not first person narratives, although there are always exceptions. There is a great VJ Day back of a print I will try to post next week…
This print was for an exhibition (I don’t know which one, my first thought was that it was for one of the Photo League shows, but now I think probably not.).
ICP has about 20 prints with this kind of information on the verso of the mount: the PM photo, several stamps, a detailed typed caption, including what kind of film, information about the flash bulb, and shutter speed, etc…
In the 50s and 60s he was writing mostly on the front of the photos, in ink…
Thanks,
Chris
ps. yr Mell Kilpatrick photos are cool…
pps. we are in the process of collecting every bit of Weegee’s writing: captions, notes, letters, post cards, lists, etc…
Thank you so much for replying! It took me a while to see your post, I neglected to click the “notify me” box. I am not sure when your last major exhibit of Weegee was (or if one is planned” but I would certainly fly in for it. Thanks again! Much appreciated!
JIm Linderman