WEEGEE (ARTHUR FELIG) NAKED CITY - 1945 FIRST EDITION WITH 1ST ISSUE DUST JACKET

Essential Books, 1945-01-01. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/New Facsimile DJ. Hardcover with New Facsimile DJ and related ephemera, First Edition 1945 Essential Books NYC 244 pages. Very Good, in a New Facsimile DJ. Minor shelf/edge wear to smooth oatmeal cloth boards with black titles - corners bumped. Book is housed in a New Facsimile 1st Edition DJ that not only pops, but will last for generations to come. Photographic endpapers. Illustrated with hundreds of finely printed photo-gravures by the Polish-born news photographer Arthur Felig. Also incuded is the actual book review by Aaron Sussman of Weegee's Naked City from the July 28, 1945 issue of The Saturday Review. This is the famous street photographer's first book, with lurid tabloid-style images of Manhattan crime, crowds, and nightlife. Weegee loved murder scenes, paddy wagons, the distressed, partygoers and skid-row. Arthur (Usher) Fellig (June 12, 1899 – December 26, 1968), known by his pseudonym Weegee, was a photographer and photojournalist, known for his stark black and white street photography in New York City. Weegee worked in Manhattan's Lower East Side as a press photographer during the 1930s and 1940s and developed his signature style by following the city's emergency services and documenting their activity. Much of his work depicted unflinchingly realistic scenes of urban life, crime, injury and death. The origin of Fellig's pseudonym is uncertain. One of his earliest jobs was in the photo lab of The New York Times, where (in a reference to the tool used to wipe down prints) he was nicknamed "squeegee boy". He may subsequently have been dubbed "Weegee"—a phonetic rendering of Ouija—because his instant and seemingly prescient arrivals at scenes of crimes or other emergencies seemed as magical as a Ouija board. Most of his notable photographs were taken with very basic press photographer equipment and methods of the era, a 4×5 Speed Graphic camera preset at f/16 at 1/200 of a second, with flashbulbs and a set focus distance of ten feet. He was a self-taught photographer with no formal training and yet he produced one of the most influential photography books of the twentieth century. Parr and Badger, 145. Handsome vintage copy in new facsimile DJ with the scarce Saturday Review article as well. Highly Recommended. LOC SSS-16