Weegee

Weegee, born Usher Fellig (later Arthur Fellig) on June 12, 1899, in Złoczów, Austria-Hungary (present-day Ukraine), was one of the most iconic and influential photojournalists of the 20th century. He emigrated to the United States as a child and grew up in New York City, where he would spend much of his career prowling the streets at night with a 4x5 Speed Graphic camera, capturing the raw, unvarnished drama of urban life. His nickname 'Weegee' was a phonetic rendering of 'Ouija,' a reference to his seemingly supernatural ability to arrive at crime scenes, fires, and accidents before the police — an ability aided in part by his installation of a police-band shortwave radio in his car, one of the first press photographers to do so.