Fat men's races and fall-out shelters, murder victims and loose women, cheerleaders and immigrants, celebrities and children in distress were just some of the urban curiosities splashed across the pages of city newspapers during the Speed Graphic era (1930s-1950s). Championed by acclaimed news photographers like Arthur Fellig (a.k.a. Weegee), the Speed Graphic camera produced a new visual style that was as blunt, powerful, and immediate as a left hook.

Driven by the desire to fill newspaper pages with sensational images, press photographers shot everything, day and night: automobile accidents, fires, murders, all the cop news that fought for a hot spot on the Front Page. And they covered uncounted numbers of social affairs--pictures called "grip-and-grins" in the trade: school events, sports, celebrities, oddities both of nature and humanity.

Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Borealis Books
Published: 10/15/2004
ISBN: 9780873515047
Pages: 216
Weight: 3.23lbs
Size: 11.36h x 10.36w x 0.91d
Award: Minnesota Book Award - Finalist

Review Citations: New Yorker (The) 04/11/2005 pg. 77