I was reading an old magazine from last year, and Roger Hicks was reviewing a photo for Weegee the famous, that lead me to search for more information and photographs, I found an interesting link that captures his methodology and thoughts... I am inspired by the guy so i thought i'd share the link with you: http://erickimphotography.com/blog/...eegee-has-taught-me-about-street-photography/ There are photographs, videos and quotes, here's one I love: “When you find yourself beginning to feel a bond between yourself and the people you photograph, when you laugh and cry with their laughter and tears, you will know you are on the right track.”
Weegee was very very good but I would not describe his best social work as nice. It was anything but nice. It was relevant. It was violent and nasty. It was about murder. It drew attention of the nastyness of the criminal underclass to nice middle class prople who bought newspapers. We still have photographers with similar targets but they are few and far between.
He was a big influence on Diane Arbus, another photographer worth checking out if you don't know her already.
Today BJP arrived and includes work by Daniel Berehulak, a photographer whom I had not heard of, although he is a Pulitzer prize winner. His photographs of alleged drug dealers alledgedly murdered by followers of President Duterte in the Philippenes reminded me of Weegee. They are not the sort of stuff that AP would dare publish, and taking and publishing probably put him at risk. They are historical records at one level but also force one to think how one should morally deal with difficult types of criminals.
