..........
Photographe inconnu, Weegee à sa machine à écrire dans le coffre de sa "Chevy." de 1938, 1943.
MARY MARGARET MCBRIDE: Who's always been madly in love with New York City,
but maybe Weegee, I'm not quite as much in love with it as you are. The way
everybody talks about you and this book, this beautiful book that you've done,
I think maybe you not only love it better than I do, but you know it a doggone
sight better than I do. You've been studying it how long?
WEEGEE: Well, all my life, down on all the streets, I know 'em all because
I drive all night long. I know every block, every sign-post, every cop, every
beggar, every . . . everything
(...)
MCBRIDE: I know in Naked City, that picture of a man just sitting on
the curb. You took that and then suddenly he gets up to walk across the street
and an automobile knocks him down and he's killed right there before your eyes,
and your camera records the whole thing.
WEEGEE: Yeah, it was a very sad thing, I mean, sometimes . . . I cry, I mean,
but I can't help it. I figure it's my job to record these things, the same like
the cops and ambulance driver arrive on a scene, I'm there too. Incidentally,
if I arrive at the fire after the fire engines do, I feel disgraced and hurt.
..........
« Il faut être enragé pour travailler dans les
conditions où je me trouve. Je travaille à l’aveuglette ; je n’ai aucune
reculée. Ne serai-je jamais casé comme je l’entends ? Enfin, dans ce
moment-ci, je suis sur le point de finir 50 personnages grandeur nature,
avec paysage et ciel pour fond, sur une toile de 20 pieds de longueur
sur 10 de hauteur. Il y a de quoi crever. Vous devez imaginer que je ne
me suis pas endormi. »
Gustave Courbet, Un enterrement à Ornans, 1849-1850.
N.H.
