Weegee: Photos of a seedy underworld

Oliver Lunn | bbc.com | 4th March 2020

The New York tabloids had a saying: “if it bleeds it leads”. Weegee’s sensational images for these clients brought him renown. What sets his photography apart is an evident empathy for those who lived in New York’s teeming tenements. It allowed his images to tell a bigger, human story which is his legacy. One follower was Diane Arbus: “[they] occupy some of the same mental space – the underworld, the real fringe people”. A video (8 min) is here.