WEEGEE (ARTHUR FELLIG) HANDWRITTEN LTR SIGNED TWICE,
"Weegee", on notebook paper, 5.5 x 8, probably to Wilma Wilcox, on
needing his eye glasses "to watch the daily retakes"; to
"Save all the copies of Life Magazine" ; and his
trip to Paris. A notebook hole punch not affecting the writing, otherwise in
fine condition.
Weegee (1899-1968)
was the pseudonym of Arthur Fellig a
famous New
York City photographer and photojournalist in the
1940's and 1950's known for his stark black and white street photography:
images of murder, mayhem, dead gangsters, Harlem blacks, famous personalities,
and other dramatic events. His career spanned four decades on both coasts
as well as Europe. His images of dead gangsters
and his own flamboyant personality established his reputation as New York's
"crime photographer," a reputation and persona he nurtured. The New York Museum of Modern Art acquired
some his photographs and many of his images have appeared in multiple books.
In the 1950's and 1960's he experimented with photo distortions and
photography through prisms that created caricatured images.
Wilma Wilcox was
a Quaker social worker who Weegee lived with for over a decade before his death
in 1968. She inherited his entire archive of original prints and subsequently
donated them to the International Center for
Photography on her death in 1993.
$500 #10742
