Weegee’s October Surprise

Weegee (1899-1968), [Weegee], ca. 1968 (12602.1993)

Published together for the first time in almost 50 years.
Published for the first time on the Internet.
Available nowhere else but Fansinaflashbulb.
Together, in a few, probably three, blog posts, a Fansinaflashbulb exclusive…

We now present, arranged almost alphabetically, part one of a new series of blog posts, Weegee’s October Surprise, photographs of the 1968 (and one from 1964) Presidential candidates (and a spouse or two) of the United States of America.

Weegee (1899-1968), [Barry Goldwater], ca. 1964 (10804.1993)

Weegee (1899-1968), [Hubert H. Humphrey], ca. 1968 (10864.1993)

Weegee (1899-1968), [Bobby Kennedy], ca. 1968 (3013.1993)

Weegee (1899-1968), [Jackie Kennedy], ca. 1963 (10271.1993)

Weegee’s last major project was caricatures, distorted photographic portraits, of politicians. Weegee’s energies were focused primarily, although not exclusively, no politician or public figure was safe from Weegee’s darkroom antics, on the 1968 U.S. presidential elections (Wikipedia). Many people have wondered wistfully, what-in-the-world would Weegee make today with the current presidential candidates (and perhaps Photoshop). Some of these photos were exhibited and published, perhaps most significantly, and perhaps slightly psychedelically, in See magazine in October 1968, forty eight years ago this month:

The Candidates
As Seen Through the Three Eyes of Weegee
One of America’s Outstanding Photographers

“I take pictures with my third eye – the inner eye that sees what lies beneath the surface of the subject. What some call a pictorial distortion may, in truth, be the reality. And what we call reality may be a distortion of the truth.” – Weegee
See, October 1968

Weegee (1899-1968), [Eugene McCarthy], ca. 1968 (12606.1993)

Weegee Wednesday is an occasional series exploring, or just enjoying, the life and work of Weegee.