[Outline of a Murder Victim]

Weegee

1942 · Gelatin silver print · Photographs

Working as a freelance press photographer in New York City during the mid-1930s and 1940s, Weegee achieved notoriety through sensational photographs of a crime-ridden metropolis. Although his nickname derived from an earlier job as a "squeegee boy" drying photographic prints in a professional darkroom, through brazen self-styling he designated himself a human Ouija board, who always seemed to know where the next big scoop would be. In fact, he lived across the street from police headquarters and used a department-issued radio. Here, Weegee distills the genre of the crime scene photograph into a minimalist trace: the camera’s flashbulb illuminates a hastily drawn chalk outline bearing the stark label "HEAD."

Artist

Weegee

Date

1942

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Gift of Bruce A. Kirstein, in memory of Marc S. Kirstein, 1978