The snapper of NYC

Damiani are to be congratulated on this superb facsimile of Naked City. Over the years there have been several editions of the book but unfortunately they have been poor copies scanned from the original hardback or the 25 cent paperback, both published in 1945. This new copy uses the original prints in the International Center of Photography which holds the Weegee Archive of over twenty thousand photos. The printing helps too, with a two hundred screen on a matt art paper so the photos have the same punchy look as they appeared in the New York dailies from 1939 to 1945.

Weegee took these 229 photos on the streets of the city, mostly at night with his Speed Graphic flash camera which easily lit up the action whether it was a crowd of people looking at a corpse on the pavement or a building's fourth floor fire. An interesting point about the book is that individually these are just news or general interest photos that the dailies needed day after day and after publication just became history but collect them into a book and they gain extra credence and become Weegee's remarkable take on daily life in the city.

As well as the facsimile of Naked City there are two interesting essays about Weegee and thirty-two pages of captions taken taken from the newspapers that printed the photos. Almost all of these are from PM, a left-leaning afternoon tabloid that actually paid Weegee a retainer though he wasn't on the staff (the paper was unusual in that it took no advertising which probably explains its short life: 1940-1948).

A note to book buyers Second-hand and online sellers have plenty of copies of Naked City but the Damiani edition is really the only one that is worth getting because of its quality production. If you see a copy on the net it's worth checking the publisher or the correct ISBN 9788862086950.