Weegee

Weegee was born Usher Fellig on June 12, 1899 in Lemburg, Ukraine. He first worked as a photographer at age fourteen, three years after his family emigrated to the United States, where his first name was changed to the more American-sounding Arthur. Self-taught, he held many other photography-related jobs before gaining regular employment at a photography studio in lower Manhattan in 1918. In 1935 he became a freelance news photographer. He focused his practice around police headquarters and in 1938 obtained permission to install a police radio in his car. He took the most sensational photographs of news events and sold them to publications such as the Herald Tribune, Daily News, Post, and The Sun, among others. Weegee published several books, including Naked City (1945), Weegee’s People (1946), and Naked Hollywood (1953).