Weegee‘s photographs still form an impressive document of modern city life - in all its brutality, violence, and pitilessness. Through his photography, he recorded the traces the Great Depression of the 1930s and 40s left behind. No less drastic are his photographs of New York‘s high society. They constitute a sarcastic comment on the rich, which is also true for his pictures of famous people and Hollywoodstars that he took in the 1950s and for which he used specific distorting lenses.

The intensity of his photographs results from a harsh realism and expressive arrangements. Weegee prefers using strong flash-lights to cause dramatic lightshade effects and sharp b/w-contrasts. This had already been typical feature of his work when, as a street photographer, he travelled through the East Side of New York with a pony to photograph children for a few cents.

The exhibition is available.

exhibition objects: 108 black/white photographs