Getty Museum
Simply Add Boiling Water
Creator
Weegee (Arthur Fellig)American Photographer · 1899–1968
All works by this person →As legend tells it, Arthur Fellig earned the nickname *Weegee* during his early career as a freelance press photographer in New York City. His apparent sixth sense for crime often led him to a scene well ahead of the police. Observers likened this sense, actually derived from tuning his radio to the police frequency, to the Ouija board, the popular fortune-telling game. Spelling it phonetically, F
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- negative December 19, 1943; print about 1950
- Medium
- Gelatin silver print
- Culture
- American
- Department
- Photographs
- Institution
- Getty Museum
A dramatic nighttime fire at a New York City kitchen products factory provided Weegee with an opportunity to exhibit some wry humor. Just below where the water cannons douse the fire, and almost centered in the frame, a sign reads "SIMPLY ADD BOILING WATER." Weegee's intentionally ironic composition enhanced his chance of selling the image to newspapers, something that was always in the forefront of his mind as a freelance photographer. Weegee's dramatic high contrast print nevertheless subtly reveals the tones of the building's facade at night. Glaring white ambulance lights, lamplight, and chutes of water from a fire truck mix with the ghostly glow of fire and steam. Using a combination of flashbulbs, and by some accounts flash powder, Weegee generated enough light to capture this scene.
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