[Outline of a Murder Victim]
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."
Artwork Details
- Title: [Outline of a Murder Victim]
- Artist: Weegee (American (born Austria-Hungary), Złoczów (Zolochiv, Ukraine) 1899–1968 New York)
- Date: 1942
- Medium: Gelatin silver print
- Dimensions: 33.9 x 27.4 cm. (13 3/6 x 10 13/16 in.)
- Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: Gift of Bruce A. Kirstein, in memory of Marc S. Kirstein, 1978
- Object Number: 1978.616.6
- Rights and Reproduction: © Weegee / International Center of Photography.
- Curatorial Department: Photographs
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