Author Archives: espindel

Where’s Weegee?! Smash-up Edition

Posted on December 21, 2011 by espindel

Three car crashes. Very few clues. Does anyone recognize the location of these fender-manglers? Leave a comment or email espindel (at) icp.org! Weegee, Crash, 1942-44 Maybe Tudor City? Weegee, [Car crash], 1940s Weegee, Girl jumped out of car, and was … Continue reading →

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Where’s Weegee?!

Posted on December 13, 2011 by espindel

Here at ICP we’re full-on in preparation for our upcoming Weegee exhibition. As part of that preparation, we’ve been working hard to identify the precise location where several of Weegee’s photographs were taken. For a few of these, though, we … Continue reading →

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Great Conductors V: William Steinberg

Posted on August 16, 2010 by espindel

W. Eugene Smith, Conductor leaning toward violin section, baton gesture, from the Pittsburgh series, 1955–56 After establishing himself as a conductor in Germany, William Steinberg fled the Nazi regime in 1936, emigrating to Palestine and founding the Israel Philharmonic. It … Continue reading →

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Great Conductors IV: Arturo Toscanini

Posted on August 11, 2010 by espindel

Chim (David Seymour), Arturo Toscanini, master conductor and pianist, at the age of 87. In the library case are the death masks of Beethoven, Wagner, and Verdi, Milan, 1954 In a letter proposing a new series to Newsweek magazine, the … Continue reading →

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Great Conductors III: Klaus Tennstedt

Posted on August 9, 2010 by espindel

Alfred Eisenstaedt, Klaus Tennstedt, Conductor, Munich, April 1980 “Unlike earlier titans, he possessed no discernible charisma, nor was he an intellectual (though he was tolerably well-read), or a visionary. Spiritually he was confused, socially a disaster. What set Klaus Tennstedt … Continue reading →

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Great Conductors II: Wilhelm Furtwängler

Posted on August 5, 2010 by espindel

Alfred Eisenstaedt, Wilhelm Furtwängler conducting the Berlin Philharmonic in Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, Berlin, 1932 Rightly regarded as one of the greatest conductors of the twentieth century, Wilhelm Furtwängler—like his younger contemporary Herbert von Karajan—never escaped the shadow cast over his career … Continue reading →

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Happy Birthday, Louis!

Posted on August 4, 2010 by espindel

Philippe Halsman, [Louis Armstrong], 1966

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Great Conductors I: Leonard Bernstein

Posted on August 3, 2010 by espindel

Weegee, Leonard Bernstein, ca. 1960 Whether lecturing at Harvard, screaming at professional orchestras, or conducting Haydn using only his eyes (3:45), Leonard Bernstein was a showman. While some, most famously Tom Wolfe, excoriated him as a shallow, self-obsessed charlatan, to … Continue reading →

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Uncle Sam’s Burden

Posted on July 26, 2010 by espindel

B.L. Singley, Keystone View Company, The Philippines, Porto Rico, and Cuba—Uncle Sam’s Burden, 1899 Introduced during the President’s State of the Union address in 1823, the Monroe Doctrine states that the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have … Continue reading →

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Changing Brooklyn

Posted on July 22, 2010 by espindel

Berenice Abbott, Warehouse (Yuban), Water and Dock Streets, Brooklyn, New York, May 22, 1936 Located in the part of Brooklyn that is now called DUMBO, the Empire Stores warehouse once housed the Yuban Coffee Company, importers of coffee from South … Continue reading →

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