WeeGee

Offering a new perspective on Weegee's oeuvre, Weegee: Society of the Spectacle presents the photographer's iconic images beside lesser-known works.

There's a mystery to Weegee. The American photographer's career seems to be split in two. On one side, his sensational photography printed in North American tabloids: corpses of gangsters lying in pools of their own blood; bodies trapped in battered vehicles; kingpins looking sinister behind the bars of prison wagons; dilapidated slums consumed by fire; and other harrowing evidence of the lives of the underprivileged in New York from 1935 to 1945. On the other, the festive photographs—glamorous parties, performances by entertainers, jubilant crowds, openings, and premieres—not to mention a vast array of portraits of public figures that Weegee delighted in…