Getty Museum
Easter Sunday in Harlem
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 1940; print about 1950
- Medium
- Ferrotyped gelatin silver print
- Culture
- American
- Department
- Photographs
- Institution
- Getty Museum
>I spotted this happy man coming out of the church ... he told me that he was a clothing salesman ... and that every Easter Sunday he puts on his full dress suit.* > >--Weegee from *Naked City* (1945) At a time of racial tension in many parts of the United States, Weegee's photographs showed an unusual sensitivity in their portrayal of minorities. Here, an African-American man in his best suit is surrounded by other churchgoers on Easter Sunday, 1940. Resplendent in coattails, top hat, and striped pants, the man radiates respectability and authority. His tired eyes are overshadowed by his brilliant smile. Compositionally, his top hat forms the peak of a triangle containing two women in white hats, one in the foreground, the other behind and to the right. Weegee's flash illuminates the man, a woman, and a well-dressed boy, while a cluster of other people crowd the scene from within the shadows.
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