LETTER FROM NEW YORK

PHOTO ESSAY

Shot in the Dark

A new exhibition focuses on the lesser-known photos of the late, great Weegee

By Lauren Mechling
July 26, 2006

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The World Goes Nuts (c. 1943).

English wasn’t Weegee’s first language, but he was a fast learner and came to love to play with words. He wrote captions for all his pictures, often telling jokes that echo the tone of the pulp novels he devoured. He called a photograph of himself getting his shoes shined “Covering Murders Gets Dirty,” and a picture of a corpse at the foot of a mailbox “Special Delivery.” His middle-European accent stuck with him all his life, and he was hired by Stanley Kubrick to work as a voice coach for Peter Sellers during the shooting of Dr. Strangelove. (He also worked on the set as a still photographer.)