'Spellbound by the mystery of murder' - Arthur Fellig

Arthur Fellig, better known as Weegee, has always been one of my favourite photographers. From around 1930 to the late 1960's he was a street photographer that specialised in murder and crimes of the worst parts of New York City.
He worked with black and white cameras and because most of the situations he found himself at were all at night, so quite a lot of the time he used infrared film and flash so that you could see the subjects and the rest of the scene too.
Many people have said that he had a sixth sense for these crimes because he would be at the scene before the emergency services most of the time. But what he really used to do was tune his radio next to his bed into the same frequency as the police so that he would here about the crimes and be able to get there to photograph them first.

 This image is one of my favourites, even though its one of the less gory of photos from Weegee's work I think its a very effective.
I think this images works and is so strong is because the weapon used in this crime is still in the scene and its still facing the victim, as if the user had just 'done the dead', dropped the weapon and ran.

I think this makes the image effective because it shows how the crime was committed but also how careless criminals are, it seems very much like a 'hit and run' situation.

Weegee was a photojournalist and I love his use of negative space in this images because it really makes the gun and the victim stand out and what you look at the most.

Obviously, being a photographer of that kind you have to be carful not to touch or move anything from the scene due to evidence for the police, but I think this is one of these reasons why I like his images too because he's photographed them exactly how he would of found them. So in this images, that's why the gun is still there and the victim is still lying there in an awkward way, slowly bleeding out his face by the looks of it. The scene is totally untouched by anyone yet because Weegee got there first.  

Above is another one of Weegee's images, this one contains a lot more information about how or why this man could be there. Due to the fact that the images are taken in black and white, I struggled to tell whether he was sat in blood or not, but because its gone into hi shoes and trousers I believe that it is. also in the bottom right of the image is some bottles and glass, so there is also a possibility that he could of overdosed on something as well.
I think this image really worked because the victim of scene is right in the centre and is the main focus, but then Weegee has left a few clues/icons in the image that could explain how or why he was there.
Weegee liked the use of negative space because it shows the gloom, gory and seriousness of each image. in this image the negative space is well used with little lights or street lights possible, but it makes the image even more eerier because you cant see what's actually up there.
This image might not be as strong or as deep as the previous one but I still believe that this is a very intense and hard hitting image. 

Even though, I love Weegee's photography and I think he's one of the first photographers that inspired me into doing this kind of thing, I don't think I could ever imagine doing the sort of thing he did. simply because its a totally different thing, being there to take the pictures to looking at them and appreciating them. I love researching him and finding more out about his work and have for a very long time now, I think one of the reasons I like his work so much is because I couldn't imagine doing what he did myself.

Below are just a few of his other images to give you a better understanding of his work and what he used to do.