Weegee, Standing By

arts

Essay Weegee, Standing By

Jason Hill

Department of Art History, University of Delaware, 318 Old College, Newark, DE 19716, USA; [email protected]

Received: 27 May 2019; Accepted: 16 July 2019; Published: 26 August 2019

Abstract: Informed by an interesting recent infrastructuralist turn in media studies and by an expanding sense among historians and theorists of photography of what might properly delimit the photographer’s toolkit, this essay considers aspects of the photography of Weegee, as these can be observed to issue from that photographer’s deep professional embeddedness in speciﬁc media-infrastructural conditions of the place and time he most productively inhabited: New York City in the early 1940s. This essay prompts questions (and hazards some answers) concerning the stakes of Weegee’s press-photographic engagements with the material, electronic, and atmospheric infrastructures of wartime dairy delivery, underground transport, and, most urgently, policing, so to better understand the ﬁt of his pictures to the world they so cleverly described.

Keywords: Weegee; photography; infrastructure; police; media; visual culture

Imagine that the world can be likened to an enormous set of broadcasting stations, each one emitting its signal or its programme at its proper wavelength ... The emission is continuous, corresponding to the truism that something is always happening ... The set of ... events, then, is like the cacophony of sound one gets by scanning the dial of one’s radio receiver ... Since we cannot register everything we have to select, and the question is what will strike our attention? (Galtung and Ruge [1965] 1988)

1. Milk City One early one morning in January 1943, the New York City newspaper photographer Weegee positioned himself across the street from Dairy King at 139 Havemeyer St. in Brooklyn and he photographed, within a fixed frame, every truck that stopped between 07:00 and 10:00 to deliver cartons and bottles of milk there (Figure1). To what end? This slow and watchful procedure yielded six pictures, published by the local tabloid daily PM on January 10, in a captioned grid stacked three upon three. These pictures varied only in the make of trucks and in the company logos they bear, and in the captions’ reported details of time and of number of bottles or cartons delivered: “Borden delivers 76”; “Sunnydale 100 bottles of cream,” and so on. Here was no murder or fire or wreck or brawl, and not even any obvious human interest, such as we have come to expect of this photographer in his later Naked City moment.1 The news was rather more prosaic: a distant regulatory tweak had led to a spike in local milk prices. In their wake, the Agriculture Department had identified an inefficiency and prescribed its cost-saving corrective: to offset a sudden 2¢ jump in the price of a quart of milk, it would be necessary to eliminate the costly “duplication of [delivery] routes by milk companies,” whereby some half-dozen different vendors, as Weegee so dutifully chronicled, might deliver to a single shop on a single day at great and needless expense in “tires and gasoline” (Beichman and Weegee 1943, p. 5). The remedy was to be these deliveries’ rotation, so that different dairies served different shops on different days, obviating the daily retreading of

1 Weegee, a pioneer in local news photography since the late 1930s, made his name as a photographer at PM between 1940 and 1944, before securing national renown as the author of the 1945 book Naked City, which compiled a selection of his work from PM and other papers. See (Lee and Meyers 2008) and (Bonanos 2018).

Arts 2019, 8, 108; doi:10.3390/arts8030108 www.mdpi.com/journal/arts Arts 2019, 8, x FOR PEER REVIEW 2 of 21 gasoline”. (Beichman and Weegee 1943, p. 5). The remedy was to be these deliveries’ rotation, so that different dairies served different shops on different days, obviating the daily retreading of routes. Of the proposed fix, Dairy King’s proprietor, Hyman Linkoffsky, held a balanced view: “customers mightn’t like the idea of being forced to take a brand they were unaccustomed to … But it’s a war [on] … and I don’t think it would be too much of a sacrifice. After all, milk is milk”.

Arts 2019If we, 8, 108 might take routine civil disturbance to be Weegee’s news beat, here was a modest2 of 20if potentially osteoporotic one newly triggered by an aggravated old redundancy in milk delivery routes. On this occasion Weegee had been charged by editors not with picturing sensational urban routes.mayhem Of (as the we proposed might fix,expect) Dairy but King’s instead proprietor, with the Hyman compelling Linkoffsky, visualization held a balanced of a view:markedly “customers subtle mightn’tdistribution like inefficiency the idea of being operating forced just to take below a brand the th theyreshold were unaccustomedof routine visibility: to ... Buta blip it’s in a warthe [on]optical... andwhite I don’tnoise think of metropolitan it would be life. too much of a sacrifice. After all, milk is milk”.

Figure 1. ArnoldArnold Beichman and Weegee. “One of the ‘Frills’ ‘Frills’ That That Make Milk Cost You More”, PM, 10 January 1943. Image courtesy of the Inte Internationalrnational Center of Photography.

IfSuch we was might pictorial take routinenewsgathering civil disturbance on the local to beat be Weegee’sin wartime, news at least beat, in herethe pages was of a modestWeegee’s if potentiallyprincipal journalistic osteoporotic gig, one PM newly, which triggered dedicated by an at aggravated least as much old redundancy ink to disturbances in milk delivery in the routes. local Oneconomy this occasion as it did Weegee to those had of criminal been charged violence, by editorsnational not poli withtics, picturing and global sensational war.2 To urbanwit, and mayhem to stay (aswith we milk might for expect)a moment: but six instead days withlater theWeegee’s compelling colleague visualization at PM, Ad of Reinhardt, a markedly published subtle distribution a cartoon ineaccompanyingﬃciency operating Beichman’s just below reporting the threshold on the farm of routine bloc mechanisms visibility: a blipaffecting in the the optical point-of-sale white noise price of metropolitanspike at issue. life. His picture: a robber baron in overalls and top hat hoisting milk and cow up and out of reachSuch of was growing pictorial children newsgathering by rope and on the pulley local (Figure beat in 2) wartime, (Beichman at least and in Reinhardt the pages 1942, of Weegee’s p. 18). principalMilk economy journalistic for PM gig, wasPM ,no which passing dedicated concern. at least Two as full much year inks before, to disturbances for the edition in the local of 5 economyJanuary as1941, it did an tounnamed those of criminalPM photographer violence, national (perhaps politics, Weegee, and more global lik war.ely2 not),To wit, again and on to stayassignment with milk with for aBeichman, moment: set six daysthe template later Weegee’s for Weegee’s colleague later at PM,feature,Ad Reinhardt,this time capturing, published between a cartoon 06:00 accompanying and 10:00, Beichman’sno fewer than reporting ten dairy on trucks the farm belo blocnging mechanisms to seven distinct affecting vendors, the point-of-sale all pictured price delivering spike at to issue. the F&R His picture:Butter and a robber Egg Market baron inat overalls35 Suffolk and St. top in Manhattan hat hoisting (Figure milk and 3) (Beichman cow up and et out al. of1942, reach p. 14). of growing3 In the childrenweeks just by after rope Pearl and pulley Harbor, (Figure the Department2) (Beichman of and Markets, Reinhardt Beichman 1942, p.reports, 18). Milk had economy observed for a potentialPM was noboon passing to milk concern. consumers Two full in yearsthe new before, wartime for the rationing edition of of 5 Januaryrubber, 1941,a material an unnamed deemedPM morephotographer urgently (perhapsessential Weegee,to war moremobilization likely not), than again to ondomestic assignment commerce. with Beichman, Fewer tires set the for template milk trucks for Weegee’s would later feature, this time capturing, between 06:00 and 10:00, no fewer than ten dairy trucks belonging to seven2 On distinctPM more vendors, broadly, see all Paul pictured Milkman, delivering PM: A toNew the Deal F&R in Journalism Butter and (New Egg Brunswick: Market at Rutgers, 35 Suffolk 1997), St. and in ManhattanJason E. Hill, (Figure Artist3) (asBeichman Reporter: Weegee, and unnamed Ad Reinhardt, photographer and the PM 1942 News, p. Picture 14). 3 (Oakland:In the weeks California, just after 2018). Pearl Harbor,3 The geography the Department of milk of takes Markets, its place Beichman in the reports,history hadof the observed illustrated a potential press in boonNew toYork milk City. consumers For one in theimportant, new wartime earlier rationingchapter, see of (Pearson rubber, a1990). material deemed more urgently essential to war mobilization

2 On PM more broadly, see Paul Milkman, PM: A New Deal in Journalism (New Brunswick: Rutgers, 1997), and Jason E. Hill, Artist as Reporter: Weegee, Ad Reinhardt, and the PM News Picture (Oakland: California, 2018). 3 The geography of milk takes its place in the history of the illustrated press in New York City. For one important, earlier chapter, see (Pearson 1990). Arts 2019, 8, 108 3 of 20

Arts 2019, 8, x FOR PEER REVIEW 3 of 21 than toArts domestic 2019, 8, x FOR commerce. PEER REVIEW Fewer tires for milk trucks would necessitate a laissez-faire reduction3 of 21 in the samenecessitate kind of delivery a laissez-faire inefficiencies reduction Weegee in the andsame Beichman kind of deliv inventoriedery inefficiencies two year Weegee later. Atand play Beichman here, again, are theinventoried low-visibility two year technics later. ofAta play home here, front again, city are in the wartime low-visibility made to technics run on of the a home inhibited front flowcity in of soft and slipperywartime streamsmade to run of gasoline, on the inhibited money, flow milk, of andsoft and rubber. slippery How streams to picture of gasoline, such a money, thing? milk, Amusing and and peculiarrubber. as this How liquid to picture pictorial such preoccupation a thing? Amusing may and now peculiar seem, as it this is well liquid worth pictorial registering preoccupation the logic of PM’smaytendency now seem, in its it careful is well worth visual registering description the of logic the of hard PM’s economics tendency in and its bluntcareful material visual description infrastructure channellingof the hard the city’seconomics essential—if and blunt otherwise material infrastruc barely visible—fortifyingture channelling the streams. city’s essential—if Infrastructure otherwise is and was, barely visible—fortifying streams. Infrastructure is and was, so writes John Durham Peters, “in most so writesbarely John visible—fortifying Durham Peters, streams. “in most Infrastructure cases demure. is and Withdrawal was, so writes is its John modus Durham operandi” Peters, “in (Peters most 2015 ). cases demure. Withdrawal is its modus operandi” (Peters 2015). It is good that a newspaper should It is good that a newspaper should restore it to visibility. restore it to visibility.

FigureFigure 2. Arnold 2. Arnold Beichman Beichman and and Ad Ad Reinhardt, Reinhardt, “Drive “DriveOpens Opens to Boost New New York’s York’s Milk Milk Price”, Price”, PMPM, , 16 March16 1942.March Image 1942. Image created created by the by author. the author.

Figure 3. Arnold Beichman and unnamed photographer, “Tire Shortage Might Reduce Price of Milk”, PM , 5 January 1942. Image Courtesy of the International Center of Photography. Arts 2019, 8, 108 4 of 20

2. Weegee as Bystander Weegee’s Dairy King sequence, all-but-unpeopled and drab in its informational formal program, registers imperfectly with “street photography” as it has been defined by critics and historians as a genre. Weegee figures importantly within that descriptor’s conjured field, and so we can measure the deviation from its standards with some precision. More an art historical category than a field of practice, “street photography” can, as Abigail Solomon-Godeau recently observed, be reasonably said to originate with the publication of Colin Westerbeck and Joel Meyerowitz’s 1994 survey, Bystander: A History of Street Photography (Solomon-Godeau 2017, pp. 85–93). For Westerbeck and Meyerowitz, writing in the early 1990s and at a moment of judicious caution concerning the veridical purchase of the documentary image, “street photography”, as a genre, compels and coheres principally in its registration not of the truth of the city but, more modestly, of the character of the medium’s own photographicness, quite as the dynamic sociality of the city might best announce it. “It is a kind of photography”, they write, “that tells us something crucial about the nature of the medium as a whole, about what is unique to the imagery that it produces”. Formally, instantaneity and multiplicity are its key terms, while fragmentation and motion blur emerge as prized genre attributes. “Errant details, chance juxtapositions, odd non sequitors, peculiarities of scale”—these are the qualities of the “candid pictures of everyday life in the street” that permit street photography its art historical identity (Westerbeck and Meyerowitz 1994, pp. 34–35). The city street, the authors contend, engenders these effects and the good street photographer gathers and arrays them in prints as pictures. The notion of the city as a good and ready subject, lying in wait for the observant photographer, remains an article of faith in the art historical presentation of street photography as a genre. Russell Ferguson expressed it well: “The city offers itself as ready-made composition, constantly forming new patterns, an endlessly regenerating trove of pictorial opportunity” (Rrougher and Ferguson 2001, p. 9). Weegee’s “success” as a “street photographer” obtains, according to this logic, less in his professional aptitude as a newspaper journalist on the beat, with his pictures subject to professional protocol and infrastructural constraint, than in his transcendently artful receptivity to the unpredictable dynamics of light as it bounced from Speed Graphic to city subject and back again: “he shot in the dark, seldom being able to predict what, if anything, he would get”, Westerbeck writes (Westerbeck and Meyerowitz, p. 335). Weegee’s formal intelligence is exactingly observed in Bystander’s account, as in its author’s smart discussion of one thrilling 1944 picture, identified and dated there as Accident Victim in Shock of 1940 (Figure4). This tightly framed photograph relates the scene of a police man reaching his hand through the window of an automobile, where it is met by the touch of a woman who has just killed another motorist in an accident: her terrified eyes possess the picture. With their gloss, Bystander’s authors help free us from those eyes’s grip so that we might better observe Weegee’s passive mastery of light, as it beams or fails to beam or splits through glass and steel. “[A] reliance on blind chance to get some of his most effective pictures is obvious in those he had to take through car windows at the scenes of accidents”, the authors write; “He could never be sure whether the flash would bounce off the glass or go through it, or where the reflections and shadows would fall” (Westerbeck and Meyerowitz, p. 335). Weegee’s flashburst, we are helped to see, shines flawlessly through a windshield to offer a sharp, bright view of the terrified woman in her horror; that same flash light is interrupted by the car’s frame to cast an evocative amputating shadow between a policeman and an accidental killer (“the severed hand serves as an image of both the car crash itself and her own disconnection from it at this moment”). Lastly, this light bounces from a police man’s cheek to only half pass through the skewed glass of an open quarter-window, reflecting his fragmented profile back at us. Light and shadow and internal frames and high human drama and affect dance and mingle to conjure an almost impossibly satisfying picture, taken, we are told, virtually by accident (Westerbeck and Meyerowitz, p. 336). All value obtains, according to this model, in the insular dynamics of black box, operator, and the evocative subject before its lens, in a closed, aestheticizing system. But the formulation neglects too much of what is meaningfully modern of this photographer’s work—its attention to and membership among the dynamic systems (human and machine) that ionize cities and set them Arts 2019, 8, 108 5 of 20 humming.4 This quality is at least as well revealed in photographs as apparently inert as those of the milk trucks outside a Brooklyn Dairy King. A much more expansive notion of street photography will be needed should that nomenclature hope to contain any adequate framework for taking this (and any) professional press photographer’s full measure—and it must, for who, after all, but press photographers have so fully chronicled the modern city in pictures? Abigail Solomon-Godeau has recently decried the interpretive limits coded into the genre’s invention as an “art historical category”, with its outsized emphasis on authorship and style.5 To this indictment add Martha Rosler’s rejection of this mode’s practical “nonresponsibility” toward its nominally extra-aesthetic subject, its “loss of specificity ... as its empties information from the image” in the service of the art world’s desired “aestheticization and universalization”, such as we tend to see in conventional discussions of Weegee’s work, where nary a thought is given to the human substance of the news it made, let alone to the procedural or informational texture of its routine journalistic function (Rosler 2004, p. 226). 6 Informed by the revised photographic ontologies of Vilém Flusser and Ariella Azoulay, who insist, each in their way, that photography be understood to analytically contain the fuller technical and psychic infrastructures upon which its functioning depends and into which its image production is inevitably enfolded, much recent scholarship better weaves street photography’s images into the tangled systems of their pictured worlds (Flusser 2005; Azoulay 2012). Catherine Clark, addressing the commercial variant of the photofilmeur and the postwar French legal structures they troubled, argues explicitly against Bystander’s passive-aggressive register, to insist that “we must reframe the street photographer as a participant in—not a bystander to—the social world” (Clark 2017). Krista Thompson has considered commercial street portrait photography in the United States and Jamaica in terms of the complex social dynamics present in the production of the image over and above the pictorial logic of the image itself (Thompson 2015). Likewise, Katherine Bussard and Jennifer Tucker have respectively insisted that street photography be understood as a visual field of the most acute political contestation: a site of constraint and resistance and of surveillance and counter-surveillance (Bussard 2014). Tucker compels us to push past the criteria of both aestheticism and “concerned” documentary, to ask of this genre “not only what do the photographs show or discover about urban streets, but how did the politics and social construction of ... mobility shape photographic narratives of urban life, and therefore what social meanings and structures do they inflect?”(Tucker 2012, p. 17).7 Tucker here denaturalizes the city’s essential dynamism—its circulatory logic, its fundamental mobility—and so offers a complex sense of documentary’s revelatory potential. Here we are rightly called upon to attend to street photography’s wider expository power—as a participant apparatus woven through the social relations that its images can only too partially mirror, and quite precisely as these relations are governed by kindred technologies of freedom and control. Street photography so re-imagined might thereby emerge as a kind of urban dye test, a bright and sensitive chemistry pumped through a city’s variably operative vital systems—its infrastructure, hard and soft, wet and dry. This will be an infrastructuralist encounter

4 Vanessa Schwartz has recently argued for the importance of studying mass media’s networked “techno-aesthetics”, so much better to place “the human-machine continuum at the center of inquiry”. See (Schwartz 2017, p. 106). 5 On this genre’s distinctly shaky definitional footing, and Bystander’s chronologically privileged position in its generic articulation, see (Solomon-Godeau 2017). en passim. To Solomon-Godeau’s recognition, add Mark Wigoder’s: “So much has already been written about street photography that one tends to forget that there is no definite and absolute definition of the topic” (Wigoder 2001). 6 Accident Victim, as offered here, jettisons concern for the time, place, and texture of the reporting to which such a picture, as a newspaper picture, belongs. This one emerged not in 1940, but only much later, for PM’s edition of 7 September 1944, as part of shared, earnest, and extended commitment by its photographer and publisher to reporting on the very serious dangers of automobility in New York City (Weegee 1944, pp. 16–17). I consider the art/journalism dichotomy, as it pertains to Weegee’s photographic project, at length in (Hill 2018). 7 Emphasis added. Arts 2019, 8, x FOR PEER REVIEW 6 of 21 Arts 2019, 8, 108 6 of 20 a city’s variably operative vital systems—its infrastructure, hard and soft, wet and dry. This will be an infrastructuralist encounter with street photography, one that indulges a fascination, as withinfrastructuralism street photography, must, with one that“the indulgesbasic, thea boring fascination,, the mundane, as infrastructuralism and all the mischievous must, with work “the basic,done 8 behindthe boring, the scenes” the mundane, (Peters and 2015, all p. the 33). mischievous8 work done behind the scenes” (Peters 2015, p. 33). We opened on an encounter with Weegee’s surprisingsurprising commitment to an analysis of urban dairy infrastructure (as it braids into into concerns concerns of of federal federal agricultural agricultural policy, policy, global war, war, and their attending attending petroleum economies), so to mark his attachment to systems such as these. If If kids at rough play in wartime will make for street phot photographyography a good subject, we might give a thought to the mechanisms mechanisms inhibiting their access to calcium. The The remainder remainder of of this this essay essay will will track this attachment further, further, to consider other dimensions of th thisis photography’s embeddedness into the city’s varied systems of conveyance and transmission. The The dairy industry held no monopoly on thethe paper’spaper’s infrastructural pictorial attention: Weegee’s Weegee’s PM milieu was one committed to the rigo rigorousrous pictorial relation of the conditions of New York York City’s otherwise subliminal operating operating structures structures as as these these shaped shaped its its readers’ readers’ daily lives.lives. ConsiderConsider sta staffff cartoonist cartoonist Leo Leo Herschfield’s Herschfield’s remarkable, remarkable hybrid, hybrid two-page two-page urban urban cross-section cross- sectionof “New of York’s “New Busiest York’s Crossroads”, Busiest Crossroads”, published publ by theished paper by the 17 October paper 17 1940 October (Figure 19405)(Hershfield (Figure 5) 1940(Hershfield, p. 17). 1940, Here p. panoramic 17). Here panoramic photograph photograph and substructural and substructural diagram combine diagram to combine excavate to no excavate newsy noincident—the newsy incident—the intersection, intersection, at 33rd between at 33rd between Broadway Broadway and Sixth, and seems Sixth, toseems defy to the defy headline the headline by its byconspicuous its conspicuous calm—but calm—but rather rather the quieter the quieter noise ofno stackedise of stacked and braided and braided infrastructure, infrastructure, like atree likeas a tree600 deep as 60′ as deep it is as six it storiesis six stories tall, all tall, laid all out laid in out an in anatomy an anatomy to true to true and and careful careful scale. scale. What What passes passes for fornews news here: here: with with thecompletion the completion of the of four-track the four Sixth-track Avenue Sixth Avenue subway subway route, “sandwiched route, “sandwiched between betweenthe BMT the tracks BMT and tracks the Longand the Island Long Railroad, Island Railroad 50 feet below, 50 feet the below street the surface”, street surface”, New York’s New “busiest York’s “busiestcrossroads” crossroads” would soon would be “busier soon be than “busier ever”. than So muchever”. ado So heremuch but ado not here much but to not see, much at least to notsee, forat leastthe street-level not for the press street-level photographer press photographer on the hunt foron incident.the hunt for incident.

Figure 4. Weegee,Weegee, [Police officer oﬃcer talking to Dorothy Reportella after she crashed into a truck, New York], 7 SeptemberSeptember 1944.1944. © Weegee/InternationalWeegee/International Center of Photography (165.1982).

8 Peters develops his “doctrine of infrastructuralism” as an interpretive “doctrine of environments and small diﬀerences, of strait gates and the needles eye, of things not understood that stand under our worlds,” (Peters 2015, p. 33). See also (Parks and Starosielski 2015).

8 Peters develops his “doctrine of infrastructuralism” as an interpretive “doctrine of environments and small differences, of strait gates and the needles eye, of things not understood that stand under our worlds,” (Peters 2015, p. 33). See also (Parks and Starosielski 2015).

Arts 2019, 8, 108 7 of 20 Arts 2019, 8, x FOR PEER REVIEW 7 of 21

FigureFigure 5. 5. LeoLeo Hershfield, Hershﬁeld, “New “New York’s York’s Busiest Busiest Crossroads Crossroads Soon Soon Will Will Be Be Busier Busier Than Than Ever”, Ever”, PMPM, ,17 17 OctoberOctober 1940. 1940. Image Image courtesy courtesy of of the the In Internationalternational Center Center of of Photography. Photography.

Herschfield’sHerschfield’s blue surveyor’ssurveyor’s inkink unearthsunearths the the action action in in the the complex complex dance dance of pipesof pipes and and wires wires and andbodies bodies and and electrified electrified rails rails that humthat hum beneath beneath the streets: the streets: Edison Edison electric electric cables cables and telephone and telephone cables; cables;mains mains for water, for water, gas, steam, gas, steam, and sewage; and sewage; subway subway cars andcars railroadand railroad cars, cars, all these all these media media stack stack and andlattice lattice in a in carefully a carefully managed managed uptown-downtown uptown-downtow/crosstownn/crosstown tangle. tangle. Here Here the the living living dynamics dynamics of theof thecity city are shownare shown to unfold to unfold as much as much in the in weave the weave of men of and men women and andwomen sewage and and sewage drinking and waterdrinking and waternatural and gas natural and telephony gas and and telephony electricity and as electricity they ever couldas they in ever the taut could sociality in the of taut the sociality sidewalk of tra theffic, sidewalksuch as some traffic, street such photographer as some street might photographer trap in a flash might for trap a picture. in a flash Hershfield’s for a picture. is a sanguineHershfield’s vision is aof sanguine Lewis Mumford’s vision of Lewis rued modernMumford’s “megatechnics”, rued modern with “megatechnics”, their “translation with oftheir all “translation organic processes, of all organicbiological processes, functions, biological and human functions, aptitudes and into human a ... mechanical aptitudes system”. into a … He mechanical expresses the system”. layered cityHe expressesas a medium, the alayered communicative city as machine,a medium, quite a commu as Friedrichnicative Kittler machine, positioned quit it:e as “a networkFriedrich made Kittler up positionedof intersecting it: “a networks network dissectsmade up and of intersecting connects the networks city. Regardless dissects of and whether connects these the networks city. Regardless transmit ofinformation whether these (telephone, networks radio transmit... ), or energyinformation (water supply,(telephone, electricity, radio highway…), or energy [here subway]), (water supply, they all electricity,represent formshighway of information” [here subway]), (Mumford they all 1966 repres, p.ent 314; forms Kittler of 1996 information”, p. 718). PM (Mumfordand Hershfield 1966, p. grasp 314; Kittlerthat the 1996, newsy p. business718). PM of Newand Hershfield York’s busiest grasp crossroads that the exceeds newsy street-photographic business of New capturabilityYork’s busiest by crossroadsbraiding the exceeds transit street-photograp of solids, gasses,hic and capturability liquids (including by braiding the essential the transit amalgam: of solids, people) gasses, with and the liquidstransmission (including by wire the ofessential energy andamalgam: information: people) these with are the dynamic transmission channels by thatwire wouldof energy so busily and 9 information:intersect here. these are dynamic channels that would so busily intersect here.9 WhileWhile famously famously a a Chevy Chevy driver driver disinclined disinclined toward toward subway subway travel, travel, Weegee, Weegee, in in his his service service to to this this newspaper,newspaper, did did have have voca vocationaltional occasion occasion to to visit Herschfield’s Herschfield’s vivid subterranean pathways. PM’sPM’s editionedition ofof Monday,Monday, 27 27 April April 1942 1942 published published as its as second its second and third and pages third the pages photographer’s the photographer’s reporting reportingon a deadly on subway a deadly wreck: subway an especially wreck: an tragic especially disturbance tragic to thisdisturbance complex system’sto this complex otherwise system’s smooth otherwisecommunicative smooth function. communicative Four dark, func dense,tion. and Four di ffidark,cult pictures;dense, and all scenesdifficult of pictures; twistedsteel all scenes and mud of twistedand confusion steel and and mud rescue, and allconfusion made late and the rescue, night all before made (Figure late the6)( Weegeenight before 1942 ,(Figure pp. 2–3). 6) (Weegee The first 1942,picture, pp. with 2–3). the The bad first joke picture, of its obviated with the two-bulbed bad joke of signal its obviated at centre two-bulbed top, interrupts signal the at underground centre top, interruptsdarkness tothe reveal underground police establishing darkness ato chaotic reveal andpolice mangled establishing scene. a Anchaotic instant’s and Speedmangled Graphic scene. flash An instant’sbelies the Speed truer conditionGraphic flash of an undergroundbelies the truer lightlessness condition toof be an mitigated underground only by lightlessness the setting upto ofbe a mitigatedstrong lamp, only a by measure the setting apparently up of a only strong just lamp then, a introduced—Weegee, measure apparently weonly can just surmise, then introduced— was among Weegee,the first towe arrive can surmise, to the emergency. was among That the firstfirst picture’sto arrive captionto the emergency. relates the scopeThat first of the picture’s disaster: caption “Four relatespeople the died scope and of 260 the were disaster: injured “Four when people New York-bounddied and 260 Hudson-Manhattan were injured when trainNew from York-bound Newark Hudson-Manhattanjumped the rails ... trainFirst from two carsNewark of train jumped telescoped, the rails left; … thirdFirst cartwo landed cars of on train platform. telescoped, Cause left; of thirdcrash car had landed not been on determinedplatform. Cause early of today.” crash Inhad explanation not been determined of the inscrutably early today.” muddy In second explanation picture, of the inscrutably muddy second picture, we find mention of another bright technology applied to good end: “Fireman dig into rammed cars. They used acetylene torch to free 13-year-old Negro child 9 On the city as an expression and accretion of media and otherwise communicative infrastructure, see (Mattern 2017). Also, (Williams 2008).

9 On the city as an expression and accretion of media and otherwise communicative infrastructure, see (Mattern 2017). Also, (Williams 2008).

Arts 2019, 8, 108 8 of 20

weArts find2019, mention8, x FOR PEER of another REVIEW bright technology applied to good end: “Fireman dig into rammed8 of cars. 21 They used acetylene torch to free 13-year-old Negro child in one car. The child was taken to hospital 10 within one more car. thanThe child 200 injured was taken people”. to hospitalThe thirdwith picture,more than page 200 opposite, injured people”. offers a view10 The of third investigators picture, pageaboard opposite, a subway offers car, a as view they of investigate investigators and aboard record a with subway camera car, and as they flash. investigate Attending and the record fourth with and camerafinal picture, and flash. Weegee Attending and PM theconclude fourth with and anfinal uncanny picture, view Weegee from and the platformPM conclude of a charredwith an car uncanny askew viewas it scrapedfrom the to platform a stop at of the a station,charred like car aaskew signal as jammed. it scraped Its captionto a stop literalizes at the station, the media like analogy:a signal “Crashjammed. cut Its telephone caption literalizes cables, disrupting the media serviceanalogy: for “C 275,000rash cut phones telephone in Staten cables, Island, disrupting Jersey service City, and for 275,000Newark”. phones The reporter’sin Staten Island, deep slice Jersey pulls City, up and news Ne ofwark”. injury The and reporter’s death and deep heroic slice rescue; pulls butup news also the of injurysurrounding and death substance and heroic of communicative rescue; but also disruption: the surrounding calamitous substance breakdown of communicative of the underground’s disruption: calamitousotherwise smoothly breakdown blended of the communications underground’s and otherwise transit pathwayssmoothly runblended through communications by trains and wires and transitand telephony pathways and run the through bright butby trains informationally-muted and wires and telephony signals ofand reporters, the bright cops, but andinformationally- firemen with mutedtheir flash signals bulbs of andreporters, lamps cops, and acetylene and firemen torches. with their flash bulbs and lamps and acetylene torches.

Figure 6. Weegee,Weegee, “Hudson–Manhattan Trai Trainn Jumps Rails in Station”,Station”, PMPM,, 2727 AprilApril 1942.1942. Image courtesy of the International Center of Photography.

If thethe city city is a medium,is a medium, journalists journalists take an interest take where an theinterest medium where fails. “Miscommunication”,the medium fails. “Miscommunication”,Peters writes, “is the scandal Peters that writes, motivates “is the the very sc conceptandal ofthat communication motivates inthe the very first place”concept (Peters of 1999communication, p. 6). Peters in urges the first us to place” restore (Peters to the concept 1999, p. of communication6). Peters urges its us root to restore associations to the with concept material of communicationtransfer and conveyance, its root includingassociations both with locomotive material and transfer electronic and transmission. conveyance, “Technologies including suchboth locomotiveas the telegraph and electronic and radio transmission. refitted the old “Technologi term ‘communication’,es such as the once telegraph used for and any radio kind refitted of physical the oldtransfer term or ‘communication’, transmission, into once a new used kind for ofany quasi-physical kind of physical connection transfer acrossor transmission, the obstacles into of a space new kindand time”of quasi-physical (Peters 1999 connection, p. 5).11 Weegee across and the ob Hershfieldstacles of anachronistically space and time” (Peters but helpfully 1999, p. remarry 5).11 Weegee these anddivorced Hershfield meanings anachronistically to articulate thebut cityhelpfully as not remarr just fity for these eventful divorced journalistic meanings remediation to articulate in the words city asand not pictures, just fit for but eventful as itself journalistic a primary media remediation structure in words within and which pictures, the journalistic but as itself image a primary is but media one of structuremany intersecting within which and the coterminous journalistic signals. image is In but a crisisone of Weegee many intersecting and PM both and record coterminous and, along signals. the way,In a crisis contribute Weegee to the and subway PM both wreck record as expressly and, along an illuminatingthe way, contribute failure in to a complexthe subway subterranean wreck as expresslycommunicative an illuminating media network failure otherwise in a resistantcomplex tosubterranean photographic communi capture.12cative media network otherwise resistant to photographic capture.12

3.10 Weegee,Deviating fromStandingPM’s own By editorial protocol, which typically avoided racializing identiﬁers where they were not germane to the substance of the reporting, this caption’s author (possibly Weegee) determined that the race of the rescued child ought to beWeegee among the made facts dug it his out business from under to the insert wreckage. himself into just these kinds of urban circulatory systems so11 to“In register the nineteenth them century in their United malfunction, States”, Peters as notes, news. “‘steam He did communication’ this in an couldimportant mean the self-portrait railroad”. (Peters taken 1999 for, p. 7). On the telegraphic separation of communication from transportation, see (Carey 1988). PM,12 On and photography published and as media part infrastructure, of a long, celebratory see (Leonardi and9 March Natale 20181941). feature on the photographer written by staff photography columnist Ralph Steiner. Weegee stages himself quite exactly as a relay—as a

10 Deviating from PM’s own editorial protocol, which typically avoided racializing identifiers where they were not germane to the substance of the reporting, this caption’s author (possibly Weegee) determined that the race of the rescued child ought to be among the facts dug out from under the wreckage. 11 “In the nineteenth century United States”, Peters notes, “‘steam communication’ could mean the railroad”. (Peters 1999, p. 7). On the telegraphic separation of communication from transportation, see (Carey 1988). 12 On photography and media infrastructure, see (Leonardi and Natale 2018).

Arts 2019, 8, 108 9 of 20

3. Weegee, Standing By Weegee made it his business to insert himself into just these kinds of urban circulatory systems so to register them in their malfunction, as news. He did this in an important self-portrait taken for PM,

Artsand 2019 published, 8, x FOR as PEER part REVIEW of a long, celebratory 9 March 1941 feature on the photographer written by9 of sta 21ff photography columnist Ralph Steiner. Weegee stages himself quite exactly as a relay—as a decisive pointdecisive in apoint system in ofa system electronic of electronic transmission transmission (Figure7). (Figure He lays 7). on He his lays bed, on soles his of bed, his feetsoles to of the his camera, feet to thesurrounded camera, surrounded by the paraphernalia by the paraphernalia of the news trade.of the Ane lateralws trade. scan A oflateral the picture scan of yields the picture one order yields of oneevidence: order oldof evidence: newspapers, old anewspapers, press award, a clippings,press award, a typewriter, clippings, a a clock, typewriter, a calendar, a clock, radios, a calendar, various radios,footwear various differently footwear designated differently for distinctdesignated working for distinct conditions: working “’murder conditions: shoes’ “’murder... and hisshoes’ ‘snow … andshows’ his (‘snowSteiner shows’ and Weegee (Steiner 1941 and, p.Weegee 51). He 1941, keeps p. his51). ‘fires He keeps shoes’ his in ‘fires the car”, shoes’ according in the car”, to the according caption. toBut the rereading caption. theBut picturerereading from the near picture to far, from along near the to axis far, ofalong the photographer’sthe axis of the photographer’s body, we discover body, a wenew discover vector ofa evidence:new vector the of wireevidence: of the the shutter wire releaseof the shutter as it extends release from as it theextends camera from that the takes camera the picturethat takes and the inward picture toward and inward Weegee’s toward hand, Weegee’s where it reaches hand, where for another it reaches wire above,for another passing wire from above, one passingof Weegee’s from two one stacked of Weegee’s radios. two It isstacked fitting thatradios. this It other is fitting wire that should this beother harder wire to should see: “On be harder top of his to see:regular “On radio”, top of Steinerhis regular explains, radio”, “is Steiner a police explai short-wavens, “is radioa police and short-wave a loudspeaker radio attached and a loudspeaker to it dangles attachedover his head”.to it dangles Weegee over offers his himself head”. in Weegee this carefully offers stagedhimself picture, in this as carefully existing, staged amid wires, picture, at theas existing,intersection amid of wires, photography at the intersection and radio, asof aphotog relayraphy between and these radio, distinct as a relay but competingbetween these high-speed distinct butinformation competing delivery high-speed systems, information where he delivery translates system thes, information where he translates passed from the information the invisible, passed sonic frommedium the ofinvisible, the former, sonic with medium only modest of the former, delay, into with the only pictorial modest but delay, silent into medium the pictorial of the latter. but silent From mediumthis intermediate of the latter. station, From Weegee this intermediate taps into the city’sstation, variably Weegee material taps into circulatory the city’s systems variably and material media pathways.circulatory Somesystems such and systems, media aspathways. we have Some seen, carriedsuch systems, (or notably as we lapsed have inseen, their carried carriage (or of)notably milk, lapsedor subway in their cars, carriage or telephone of) milk, calls, or orsubway some combinationcars, or telephone of these. calls, These or some forgotten combination pictures of of these. milk Thesetrucks forgotten and derailments pictures found of milk their trucks audience and amongderailments readers found for whomtheir audience such messages among bore readers present for whomand practical such messages purchase: bore a nutritious present beverageand practical too costly, purchase: a commute a nutritious delayed, beverage a phone too line costly, down, a commutefriend or neighbourdelayed, a hurtphone or line even down, killed. a friend or neighbour hurt or even killed.

Figure 7.7. Weegee,Weegee, [Weegee [Weegee lying lying on on bed bed in hisin studio,his studio New, New York], York], 1941. ©1941.Weegee © Weegee/International/International Center Centerof Photography of Photography (2215.1993). (2215.1993).

Weegee’s chroniclerschroniclers havehave gleaned gleaned considerable considerable insight insight into into this this photographer photographer and and his his moment moment in photography’sin photography’s history history by referenceby reference to the to self-portraitthe self-portrait just described,just described, especially especially in its in membership its membership to an 13 toevolving an evolving sequence sequence of similar of simi portraitslar portraits taken taken by Weegee by Weegee over the over preceding the preceding half decade half decade or so. orBrian so.13 Wallis,Brian Wallis, not least not amongleast among them, them, has noted has noted this sequence’s this sequence’s privileging privileging of photographic of photographic equipment equipment and and the broader cultural and technological apparatus into which this equipment was embedded (Wallis 2012, p. 27). For Wallis, these pictures speak to Weegee’s situatedness within a moment of pronounced13 See, for example, technological (Meyer 2007 change). within the profession of press photography, beginning in the early of the 1930s. His compelling inventory includes the introduction the General Electric synchronized flashbulb around 1930, the national proliferation of Wirephoto transmission capability by the Associated Press agency beginning in 1935, and the Graflex Speed Graphic camera, which became the industry standard during these same years. The impact of this trifecta on pictorial journalism can hardly be overstated, and in their union these photographic resources radically expedited press

13 See, for example, (Meyer 2007).

Arts 2019, 8, 108 10 of 20 the broader cultural and technological apparatus into which this equipment was embedded (Wallis 2012, p. 27). For Wallis, these pictures speak to Weegee’s situatedness within a moment of pronounced technological change within the profession of press photography, beginning in the early of the 1930s. His compelling inventory includes the introduction the General Electric synchronized flashbulb around 1930, the national proliferation of Wirephoto transmission capability by the Associated Press agency beginning in 1935, and the Graflex Speed Graphic camera, which became the industry standard during these same years. The impact of this trifecta on pictorial journalism can hardly be overstated, and in their union these photographic resources radically expedited press photography’s promise of swift and sharp registration and distribution of the news in pictures, at any time of day or night.14 But why limit the constituents of Weegee’s favoured medium, “photography”, to cameras, flashes, and image-distributions channels?15 What of those other new urban media of newsgathering so central to the performance of Weegee task? What of the police radio itself, whose noisy squawks and chirps he so skilfully recoded as pictures?16 “I had the place wired so that I could pick up police signals right from the radio dispatcher”, the photographer recalls in his memoir (Weegee 1961). Might we consider Weegee’s photographs of street level urban disturbances pictorial indices of the police’s all-pervasive but otherwise unrecorded and unseen electromagnetic and sonic infrastructure? Of “the ‘sonic city’—the city of radio waves”, and its artefacts, media historian Shannon Mattern lately asks, “How does one dig into a form of mediation that seemingly has no physical form?” (Mattern 2015, p. 12). Weegee and PM offer one answer. An undated photograph stored among the Weegee Archive at the International Center of Photography, probably taken at about the same time as the self-portrait described above, establishes the radio’s catalytic role within this photographer’s picture-making apparatus. (Figure8). This photographic tribute to a craftsman’s tool carries a useful description on its back: “The 2 radios, in my room, the on the left, I get the police signals, and I never shut it off,”. The inscriptions ends with a comma: like the radio itself, the recipient of this message must remain speculative, and the message will always be cut short. Weegee has rearranged his radios for this loving portrait. Where they were stacked for the fuller view discussed above, now they are arrayed and set into a kind of orderly and meaningful sequence of electrical and broadcast inputs and outputs woven among media of light and time. A wall socket draws from the Edison grid to deliver power to an Emerson 414 Bakelite set, tuned and brusquely customized for short wave, which draws upon another, now wireless network, police station WPEG (on 2450 kilocycles) with its small, targeted audience of professionals and amateurs.17 This information stream yields in turn, pictorially, to the public broadcast logic of the neighbouring, polished wood Emerson CS-272 consumer tabletop set, where, for example, an emergency call for green radio cars picked up on the Bakelite set might, after some small delay and expedient journalistic

14 On the adjoining of flash and Speed Graphic, see, most recently, (Flint 2017). On Weegee and flash, see, in addition to Flint, (Trachtenberg 2010; Hauptman 1998). On AP Wirephoto and its impact on visual journalism, see (Zelizer 1995) and (Gursel 2015). 15 Here I follow Abigail Solomon-Godeau’s demand (echoing Tagg and Flusser) that we expand our understanding of photography’s proper ontological limits as a medium: “[A]ny conceptual thinking on photography require[s] that we consider all those elements ... that exceed the camera, the individual picture, and the individual photographer ... [T]his includes the entire social, spatial, temporal, and phenomenological context in which these technological forms are variously viewed and received; the psychic determinations by which modes of spectatorial identification and projection are secured; and, not least, the industrial ... structures that underwrite, shape, manufacture, and disseminate them.” From this wide and necessary menu, the present essay follows only one relatively selective path of inquiry. See her important (Solomon-Godeau 2007). 16 Weegee’s Chevy, which was itself famously outfitted with a radio, will be the subject of another essay. 17 Concerning Weegee’s customization of the Emerson Bakelite set, note that the top half of the dial on the white has been scraped clean of printed station markers. In a recent exchange with the author on Instagram, SF MoMA Curatorial Assistant Matt Kluk observes: “The top half was for “Broadcast,” or AM band. The bottom half was shortwave, which various police departments (including the NYPD) seem to have used until the end of WWII. So, maybe just his way of designating that the radio was only to be used for shortwave listening?” Recall the additional customization of the loud speaker which Weegee wired up from this radio to hang over his bed. For a detailed account of the logistics prewar police radio in New York, see (Ranson 1937). Also see (Battles 2010). Arts 2019, 8, 108 11 of 20 processing, be enjoyed in its remediated sonic form, as news.18 Nestled between and stacked upon these points in the information stream are the twinned photographic light/time proxies of lamp and clock,Arts 2019 like, 8, x flash FOR PEER bulb REVIEW and shutter. In his own responsive activation of Bakelite and flash bulb Weegee11 of 21 will produce the pictures whose “broadcast” (in print) will follow soon after, on the surfaces of new newspaperssoon after, on whose the surfaces exhausted of precursorsnew newspapers surround whose this wiredexhausted array. precursors It is an assembly surround resonant this wired with thearray. procedural It is an logicassembly of Weegee’s resonant routine with newsgatheringthe procedural operation. logic of Weegee’s routine newsgathering operation.

Figure 8.8. Weegee,Weegee, [Police [Police radio radio in Weegee’sin Weegee's room, room New, New York], York], recto andrecto verso, and ca.verso, 1941. ca.© Weegee1941. ©/ InternationalWeegee/International Center of Center Photography of Photography (19632.1993). (19632.1993).

We might safely hazard that the better part of Weegee’s photographs of the freshly dead and We might safely hazard that the better part of Weegee’s photographs of the freshly dead and injured, made after about 1940, including those photographs for which he has long been best known, injured, made after about 1940, including those photographs for which he has long been best known, are inextricable from and fully a function of the then-still-nascent technology of police radio, which are inextricable from and fully a function of the then-still-nascent technology of police radio, which started to augment New York’s telephonic call box and telegraphic teletype systems only in 1932—a started to augment New York’s telephonic call box and telegraphic teletype systems only in 1932—a strong new strand of the city’s layered media environment.19 It was an excellent news gathering tool. strong new strand of the city’s layered media environment.19 It was an excellent news gathering tool. Even where Weegee had and would continue to make use of the earlier teletype system, radio carried considerable built-in advantage. As Jo Ranson, radio editor for the Brooklyn Eagle, where PM handled 18 its printingThe CS-272 in had its short early wave years, as well reported as broadcast in capability,1937, “only but Weegeemessages used thisof prime one for music.importance Thanks toare Matt handled Kluk, Chris by George, and Chris Bonanos for their help identifying these Emerson sets. 19radioOne motor indicator patrolmen. of police radio’s The lingering extensive novelty teletype at this moment:and telephoneAmerican City,systemsa remarkable are used interwar for the American transmission magazine of targetedinformation at municipal concerning administrators minor and crimes packed with or newswhere and noticesa long of infrastructuralinterval has matters elapsed (paving between asphalt, streetthe lights, ﬁre hydrants, etc.), was rife in the early 1940s with slick advertisements pitching automotive police radio systems commissionfrom the likes and of Westernreporting Electric of a and crime” Westinghouse. (Ranson 1937). The radio was thus not only the fastest path to “live” urban disturbances as they unfolded, precisely as these might be designated by police, but, by

19 One indicator of police radio’s lingering novelty at this moment: American City, a remarkable interwar American magazine targeted at municipal administrators and packed with news and notices of infrastructural matters (paving asphalt, street lights, fire hydrants, etc.), was rife in the early 1940s with slick advertisements pitching automotive police radio systems from the likes of Western Electric and Westinghouse.

Arts 2019, 8, 108 12 of 20

Even where Weegee had and would continue to make use of the earlier teletype system, radio carried considerable built-in advantage. As Jo Ranson, radio editor for the Brooklyn Eagle, where PM handled its printing in its early years, reported in 1937, “only messages of prime importance are handled by radio motor patrolmen. The extensive teletype and telephone systems are used for the transmission of information concerning minor crimes or where a long interval has elapsed between the commission and reporting of a crime” (Ranson 1937). The radio was thus not only the fastest path to “live” urban disturbances as they unfolded, precisely as these might be designated by police, but, by privileging only those most urgent crises, it automated the editor’s task, self-selecting assignments for the most news-photogenic incident. In PM’s pages, Weegee, a journalist invested with considerable editorial agency and never one to shy from showcasing his own “mischievous work done behind the scenes,” frequently amplified police radio’s centrality to his own provision of news pictures. A 30 July 1941 photograph, sometimes called “My Man,” and of some renown at least since its accession into the collection of the Museum of Modern Art already in 1943, might appear (taken in isolation, as a print) as an invasive meditation on loss (Figure9). As PM presented it, the picture resumes its originary multivalence; as vivid, local news of senseless and sudden violence, to be sure, but also as a reflexive meditation on the very media-infrastructural conditions (of radios, roads, and cameras) allowing that same news’ shocking, radical proximity—in time and place—to the awful trouble at hand (Figure 10). As compelled by efficiency and by his Speed Graphic’s preset focal length, Weegee shot his subject from his customary distance of six to ten feet: an astonishing nearness to such a scene—a woman only just discovering that her husband has been badly shot (he may die), her privacy invaded by the rough reach of cop. Weegee’s flash carries with it something of the unwelcome intimacy of the policeman’s grab. But the terms of that proximity were structured as much by tools for the focusing and transmission of sound as of light—as much by radio and antenna as by optics and lens. “[C]hances are that the layman doesn’t realize these things”, so noted G.A. Murray, of Western Electric, the firm outfitting the New York Police Department with its radios at the time, “he probably still pictures only the catch and is oblivious to the part played by extensive radio ... networks in localizing the criminal [incident’s] whereabouts” (Ranson 1937, p. 28). Weegee, this report underscores, responded to the very same police dispatcher’s call that beckoned the pictured “catch”. A correction to the condition of public ignorance alleged by Murray, Weegee opens his own brief narrative account of the affair, published in a text block above his three pictures, this way:

Shortly after 3 o’clock this morning ... the dreaded Signal 30 came over the police radio. (That signal means a crime has been committed; and the radio cops, when they arrive on the location, have their guns drawn and ready for action). The address was on West Street at W. 12th Street. I got there in a hurry. (Weegee 1941a, p. 15)

Details of the violence follow, but the plain emphasis here is on the tangled protocols of radiophonic policing and radiophonic journalism in press-photographic production. While the spectacle of human drama does all it might to bury the media-infrastructural lede, PM and Weegee conspire as author and publisher to restore that latter, invisible concern, police radio, to the pictorial foreground.20

20 An anecdote, likely apocryphal, shared in Ranson’s report on police radio of 1937, encourages such an interpretive reversal, whereby the police radio will be understood as a media infrastructure generative of content, rather than simply a trapping “dragnet” mechanism responsive to whatever incident might precede it. A Harlem man was caught robbing a grocery store. ‘The police radio car arrived on the scene just as the holdup man was about to step off the curb. “I’m perfectly satisfied”, he said as the cops nabbed him. “What are you satisfied about?” one of the officers inquired. “You are under arrest”, “I was just testing the efficiency of the radio cars’ (Ranson 1937, p. 12). Arts 2019, 8, x FOR PEER REVIEW 13 of 21

Arts 2019, 8, 108 13 of 20

Arts 2019, 8, x FOR PEER REVIEW 13 of 21

Figure 9. Figure 9. Weegee, [Manuel Jiminez lies wounded in the lap of Manuelda Hernandez, New York], July FigureWeegee, 9. Weegee,29, [Manuel1941. ©[Manuel Weegee/International Jiminez Jiminez lies lies Center wounded wounded of Photography in the the lap(163.1982). lap of of ManueldaManuelda Hernandez, Hernandez, New York], New York],July July 29, 1941.29, ©1941.Weegee © Weegee/International/International Center Center of of Photography Photography (163.1982). (163.1982).

Figure 10. Weegee, “Weegee Covers: A Waterfront Shooting”, PM, 30 July 1941. Image courtesy of the International Center of Photography.

An earlier, more comprehensive, five-page press-photographic immersion into NYPD business, published six months before, had prepared readers to see police pictures by the radio’s light: a “picture story of a New York day—23 hours in the world’s biggest city as its policemen see it” (Police Report 1941, pp. 1, 16–20). Entitled “Police Report”, here PM’s city editor mapped newspaper labour FigureFigure 10. Weegee, onto10. Weegee,the “Weegeestructure “Weegee of Covers: police Covers: labour, A WaterfrontA chargingWaterfront full Shooting”,y Shooting”, sixteen of PM itsPM photographers,, 3030 July 1941. 1941. “and Image Image a staff courtesy courtesyof of of the Internationalthe Internationalreporters”, Center ofto Center replicate Photography. of thatPhotography. shift work, so to answer “police calls from 12:15 Wednesday morning till 11:15 last night”. Photographs by Irving Haberman, Alan Fisher, Leo Leib, Ray Platnick, and Weegee, An earlier,among more others, comprehensive, detail the modest drama five-page of car thefts pres, drunkenness,s-photographic vandalism, immersion and domestic into disputes: NYPD business, An earlier, more“The dullest comprehensive, night I can remember”, five-page according press-photographic to one officer. Following an immersionopening page detailing into NYPD business, published six months before, had prepared readers to see police pictures by the radio’s light: a published six monthsan ongoing before, murder had investigation, prepared a three-page readers sequ toence see yields police a single pictures day’s newsgathering by the radio’s time as light: a “picture “picture storyit ticks of aoff New across York seventeen day—23 pictures: hours “12:15 in thea.m. ,wo Stolenrld’s Hearse”; biggest “3:30 city a.m., as itsDrunk”; policemen “6:30 a.m., see it” (Police story ofReport a New 1941, YorkBroken pp. day—23 1,Window”; 16–20). “5:25 hoursEntitled p.m., in Family “Police the Fight”, world’s Report”, and so biggest hereon, each PM’s accompanied city city as editor its by policemen a mapped brief if atmospheric newspaper see it” (Police labour Report 1941, pp.onto 1, the 16–20). structurecaption. Entitled Leo of Leib’s police “Police entry labour, for Report”,3:20 chargingp.m., “Body here full FounPM’sy dsixteen in cityEast River”of editor its is photographers representative. mapped newspaper A tightly“and a staff labour of onto cropped swath of diminished photographic visibility, perhaps an inch high and an inch and half the structurereporters”, of policeto replicate labour, that shift charging work, fullyso to answ sixteener “police of its calls photographers from 12:15 Wednesday “and a sta morningff of reporters”, till to replicate11:15 last that night”. shift Photographs work, so to by answer Irving Haberman “police calls, Alan from Fisher, 12:15 Leo WednesdayLeib, Ray Platnick, morning and Weegee, till 11:15 last night”.among Photographs others, detail by Irvingthe modest Haberman, drama of car Alan thefts Fisher,, drunkenness, Leo Leib, vandalism, Ray Platnick, and domestic and Weegee, disputes: among “The dullest night I can remember”, according to one officer. Following an opening page detailing others, detail the modest drama of car thefts, drunkenness, vandalism, and domestic disputes: “The an ongoing murder investigation, a three-page sequence yields a single day’s newsgathering time as dullestit nightticks off I can across remember”, seventeen pictures: according “12:15 to onea.m.,o Stolenfficer. Hearse”; Following “3:30 an a.m., opening Drunk”; page “6:30 detailing a.m., an ongoingBroken murder Window”; investigation, “5:25 p.m., a Family three-page Fight”, sequence and so on, yields each accompanied a single day’s by a newsgathering brief if atmospheric time as it ticks offcaption.across Leo seventeen Leib’s entry pictures: for 3:20 “12:15 p.m., a.m., “Body Stolen Foun Hearse”;d in East “3:30River” a.m., is representative. Drunk”; “6:30 A a.m.,tightly Broken Window”;cropped “5:25 swath p.m., of Familydiminished Fight”, photog andraphic so on, visibility, each accompanied perhaps an inch by high a brief and if an atmospheric inch and half caption. Leo Leib’s entry for 3:20 p.m., “Body Found in East River” is representative. A tightly cropped swath of diminished photographic visibility, perhaps an inch high and an inch and half across on the page, reveals a windswept policeman as he stands over the freshly discovered corpse (Figure 11). The blunt caption: “Police launch spotted ‘floater’—dead body. It was pulled up on shore at E. 12th Street. Body had on rubbers, old clothes. In a pocket was a birth certificate. There were 11 natural deaths yesterday: 10 in bed, one in street. One man was found starving; one woman injured in bed by falling plaster; one cop killed by streetcar”. This caption’s airless density conspires with its picture’s tight cropping Arts 2019, 8, x FOR PEER REVIEW 14 of 21 across on the page, reveals a windswept policeman as he stands over the freshly discovered corpse (Figure 11). The blunt caption: “Police launch spotted ‘floater’—dead body. It was pulled up on shore at E. 12th Street. Body had on rubbers, old clothes. In a pocket was a birth certificate. There were 11

Artsnatural2019 ,deaths8, 108 yesterday: 10 in bed, one in street. One man was found starving; one woman injured14 of 20 in bed by falling plaster; one cop killed by streetcar”. This caption’s airless density conspires with its picture’s tight cropping to crack the smallest window into the dangerous tedium of police work, and, toin crackthe same the smallest gesture, window to express into something the dangerous of the tedium journalist’s of police own work, tightly and, indelimited the same expository gesture, to expresscapabilities something in its orbit. of the journalist’s own tightly delimited expository capabilities in its orbit.

FigureFigure 11. “Police11. “Police Report”, Report”,PM ,PM 6 February, 6 February 1941. 1941. Image Image courtesy courtesy of the of the International International Center Center of Photography. of Photography. The ﬁnal page of “Police Report” foregrounds the mechanism by which twenty-three hours’ of city-wideThe final police page work, of “Police involving Report” some foregrounds “2800 policemen the mechanism on patrol by of thewhich hundreds twenty-three of miles hours’ of city of streets”city-wide could police be work, coordinated involving (Figure some 12 ).“2800 “Perched policemen atop the on Headquarterspatrol of the hundreds Building—a of worldmiles withinof city itselfstreets” and could the nerve be coordinated center of the (Figure department—is 12). “Perched the atop Telegraph the Headquarters Bureau. Here Building—a are concentrated, world aroundwithin theitself clock, and highlythe nerve trained center men: of telephone, the department—i telegraph,s wirelessthe Telegraph and teletype Bureau. operators”. Here are Hereconcentrated,PM pulls backaround the the operational clock, highly curtain trained on the men: preceding telephone, pages’s telegraph, yield, and wireless by extension and teletype on the methods operators”. of routine Here provisionPM pulls ofback photographic the operational police reporting,curtain on to the relate prec botheding the pages’s full organizational yield, and complexityby extension of modernon the urbanmethods policing of routine and theprovision means of by photographic which that complexity police reporting, is managed: to relate both the full organizational complexity of modern urban policing and the means by which that complexity is managed: Through [the Telegraph Bureau] pass all the orders which direct the complex movements by the woesThrough and [the misdeeds Telegraph of a great Bureau] city. Theypass controlall the orders the radio which cars ondirect patrol. the Bycomplex means ofmovements large map ofby thethe city woes and and little misdeeds disks with of whicha great they city. seem They to control play checkers the radio when cars things on patrol. are particularly By means activeof large they map dispatch of the city cars and by radio.little disks Constantly with wh throughoutich they seem each to 24 play h hundreds checkers of when radio things patrol carsare particularly are on duty. Itactive is the boastthey dispatch of the Police cars Department by radio. thatConstantly a radio carthroughout can reach theeach scene 24 ofh anyhundreds crime withinof radio three patrol minutes cars are of the on givingduty. ofIt is an the alarm. boast (Police of the Report Police 1941 Department, p. 20) that a Arts 2019radio, 8, x car FOR can PEER reach REVIEW the scene of any crime within three minutes of the giving of an alarm15 of 21 (Police Report 1941, p. 20).

Figure 12. 12. “Police“Police Report: Report: Here’s Here’s the the Machinery Machinery That That Handled Handled Those Those Calls”, Calls”, PM, 6 PMFebruary, 6 February 1941. Image 1941. Imagecourtesy courtesy of the International of the International Center Centerof Photography. of Photography.

Here we discover police cars as checkers in a radio game played by Telegraph Bureau dispatchers and tracked by photographers, Weegee unique among them (so he claimed), in his possession of a licensed automotive police radio. The text is accompanied by a sequence of three photographs relating the unfolding of this procedure at three points along an eventful communicative pathway whose end is the translation of incident, telephonically described, into the arrival of police and their police cars on the scene. The first picture (“1”, by Leo Leib, figures the interposition of police between telephone and map as they recode, from their position over Telegraph Bureau’s “U-Map” of the city, a telephoned report of some urban disturbance into a point of proximity to an available radio car. Dispatcher William Roman conveys a location to Sgt. Michael J. McDonough, who locates the incident, and so the pertinent grid sector, on the map, in order to identify nearby and available units; these marked on the map by small numbered discs. We might note that McDonough seems to point to Harlem in Lieb’s picture; a neighbourhood left otherwise (now conspicuously) unphotographed in the report. In their radiophonic collaboration with New York’s police, PM’s cameras were only willing to chase the dispatcher’s discs so far uptown.21 An account for a 1936 essay by the New York City Police’s Chief Engineer, Thomas Rochester, published in the radio enthusiast magazine Pickups, relates the Telegraph Bureau’s technique with striking clarity that merits extended quotation, if only for its value in explaining the media- infrastructural basis of so much modern crime scene photography. The procedure was this: Two men are on duty. One sits before a map mounted on a large “U” shaped table that is covered with glass. He is the dispatcher and the director of a fleet of radio patrol cars which cruise the streets of the five boroughs. To him the cars are black disks spotted over the map. Each disc is numbered. On one side the numerals appear in white designating that the car is ready for action. Red numbers on the reverse side indicated that the car is not available for the call. The second man, the announcer, is stationed before a microphone. A few feet away stands a radio transmitter, now dark and silent … Suddenly the stillness is broken by the tinkle of a telephone bell … The dispatcher takes the receiver. The announcer flips a switch at the microphone. Tubes flash blue as the plate current surges through the

21 According to sociologist Duane Robinson, writing for W.E.B. DuBois’ journal Phylon in 1945, PM “criticized editorially the overemphasis [among New York newspapers] on Negro crime, pointed out the injustice in this overemphasis, and attempted, somewhat unevenly, to set an example of proper journalistic practice”. (Robinson 1945, p. 170). This position may or may not justify this feature’s failure to answer police radio calls issuing from Harlem.

Arts 2019, 8, 108 15 of 20

Two men are on duty. One sits before a map mounted on a large “U” shaped table that is covered with glass. He is the dispatcher and the director of a fleet of radio patrol cars which cruise the streets of the five boroughs. To him the cars are black disks spotted over the map. Each disc is numbered. On one side the numerals appear in white designating that the car is ready for action. Red numbers on the reverse side indicated that the car is not available for the call. The second man, the announcer, is stationed before a microphone. A few feet away stands a radio transmitter, now dark and silent ... Suddenly the stillness is broken by the tinkle of a telephone bell ... The dispatcher takes the receiver. The announcer flips a switch at the microphone. Tubes flash blue as the plate current surges through the transmitter circuits. And police radio goes into action. Is it a robbery, assault, kidnaping, murder that is setting the great network of communication in motion? The dispatcher’s expression tells you nothing. As he takes the call his eyes are on the map noting the location of the scene where the crime has been committed. He jots down the message and ‘923’ and ‘864’—cars assigned to the job—then turns paper over to the announcer. Disks 923 and 864 are turned with red letters showing, indication that these cars are busy. Meanwhile the announcer has sent out the call to attention—a 1000 cycle note lasting three seconds. Every car in the fleet hears it and stands ready. “Calling cars 923 and 864—the address is 142 Bleecker Street, Manhattan, signal 31—station WBEG—tie 1:45 p.m.—No. 60”, says the announcer ... Quickly, calmly, efficiently, the tower room has sent out its message. The scene switches to Bleeker Street. Here noise and confusion are rampant. An excited crowd is milling around the little cigar store at No. 142. Within 45 seconds from the time the alarm winged over the air car 923 is at the scene and 864 half a block away ... While excitement reigned at Bleeker Street the dispatcher has been busy with his map. (Rochester 1936, pp. 12–13)

Chief Rochester describes the electronic remediation of human incident into data: “Is it a robbery, assault, kidnaping, murder that is setting the great network of communication in motion? The dispatcher’s expression tells you nothing.” Red and black discs will be manipulated on a grid

(Figure 13), whose coordinates, announced by shortwave radio, will be swiftly tracked by police—and by newspaper photographers. This is the city remade by police and reporters as what Peters calls logistical media, and “the job of logistical media is to organize and orient, to arrange people and property, often into grids” (Peters 2015, p. 37).22 This grid Weegee navigated as much by radio as by car. And here we gain entry into one of those technologies identiﬁed by Stuart Hall and his colleagues in their 1978 study of the pernicious dynamics of law enforcement and the press, whereby an “exceedingly limited circle of mutual reciprocities and re-enforcements” advances the collaborative construction by policeArts 2019 and, 8, xjournalists FOR PEER REVIEW of civilian norms and their policeable deviations (Hall et al. 1978, p. 76).17 of 21

Figure 13.13. ThomasThomas W.W. Rochester, Rochester, “How “How New New York York Police Police Radio Radio System System Patrols Patrols 317 Square 317 Square Mile Area”, Mile Pick-UpsArea”, Pick-Ups, February, February 1936. Image 1936. createdImage crea by theted author.by the author.

Returning to that last page of our PMPM “Police“Police Report”,Report”, with its journalistic performance of Rochester’s system, the second picture by Leib (“2” (“2”)) relates that phase in this communicative process whereby details of of a a given given incident incident are are transmitted transmitted via via radio radio to the to theappropriate appropriate radio radio patrol patrol cars. cars.The Theinvisible invisible process process behind behind the news the news becomes becomes the news, the news, and the and elusive the elusive technologies technologies of telephone, of telephone, map, map,and red/black and red/ blackdisc substitute disc substitute for journalistically for journalistically trackable trackable technologies technologies of clock, of clock, radio, radio, and car. and The car. Thecaption caption reports: reports: “Routine “Routine calls go calls like go this: like “Car this: 552. “Car Signal 552. Signal32 [Investigate]. 32 [Investigate]. Rooming Rooming house at house 2308 atW. 2308 42nd W. St. 42ndDrunk St. causing Drunk disturbance causing disturbance on third floor on”. third The floor”.third and The last third photograph and last in photograph the sequence in the(“3”), sequence by Irving (“3”), Haberman, by Irving suggests, Haberman, in its suggests,tight portrayal in its of tight watchful portrayal police of in watchful their green police and in white their greenradio car, and the white successful radio car, receipt the successful of the radioed receipt me ofssage the radioed and the message prompt anddelivery the prompt of perceptive delivery and of perceptiveable police andto the able scene. police What to thewas scene.recoded What as info wasrmation recoded in asthe information service of speedy in the policing service ofis speedywholly policingrestored isfor wholly Haberman restored tofor the Haberman iconography to the of iconography human events. of human Cumulatively events. Cumulatively PM offers a PMtidyo ffanders aefficient tidy and circuit efficient here, circuit rendering here, rendering modern modernpolicing policing as information as information logistics. logistics. Crime Crime fighting fighting and emergency response manifest as both functions of and conditional upon the deft management of time and space by telecommunications. The press photographer eavesdrops and then looks. 22 BernhardWe might Siegert consider writes of by the this grid asmeasure a cultural the technique photograph whose purpose that appeared is the “‘enframing’ on this aimed edition’s at the first availability page, and to announcecontrollability the “Police of whatever Report” is thus within conceived; (Figure it addresses 14): anda police symbolically rescue manipulates picture by things Weegee, that have PM’s been star, transformed whose into data”. (Siegert 2015, p. 98). caption anticipates the telecommunicative emphasis of the “Police Report”’s conclusion: Rescued from the River: This woman is shocked with cold. The husky cops carrying her have just hauled her form the East River and she’s on her way to the hospital. She is Ann Sullivan, 50, and she fell overboard last night from the barge Henry McNamee, tied up at Pier 9. A radio alarm brought the cops to pull her out with a boat hook. Police were unable to learn her address or occupation (Weegee 1941b, p. 1).

Arts 2019, 8, 108 17 of 20 and emergency response manifest as both functions of and conditional upon the deft management of time and space by telecommunications. The press photographer eavesdrops and then looks. We might consider by this measure the photograph that appeared on this edition’s ﬁrst page, to announce the “Police Report” within (Figure 14): a police rescue picture by Weegee, PM’s star, whose caption anticipates the telecommunicative emphasis of the “Police Report”’s conclusion:

Rescued from the River: This woman is shocked with cold. The husky cops carrying her have just hauled her form the East River and she’s on her way to the hospital. She is Ann Sullivan, 50, and she fell overboard last night from the barge Henry McNamee, tied up at Pier 9. A radio alarm brought the cops to pull her out with a boat hook. Police were unable to learn her address or occupation. (Weegee 1941b, p. 1) Arts 2019, 8, x FOR PEER REVIEW 18 of 21

Figure 14. 14. Weegee,Weegee, “23 “23 Hours Hours With With New New York York Police Police … 5... Pages5 Pages of Pictures”, of Pictures”, PM, 6 PMFebruary, 6 February 1941. Image 1941. courtesyImage courtesy of the International of the International Center Centerof Photography. of Photography.

A middle-aged white woman of no particular addres addresss or occupation and so of no special station commands thethe picture’spicture’s centre, centre, where where she she hangs hangs cradled cradled in thein the hands hands of the of fourthe four fast actingfast acting police police who whohave have saved saved her from her thefrom sure the deathsure death of February of Februa Eastry River East waters.River waters. This unremarkable This unremarkable picture picture braids braidsthe image the ofimage timely of timely and competent and competent policework policewor withk the with evidence, the evidence, embedded embedded invisibly invisibly into the into fact the of factits own of its making own making as a picture, as a picture, of competent of competen news camerat news camera work. Police work. o Policefficer and officer cameraman and cameraman encircle encirclethe subject the in subject the double in the embrace double embrace of warm of safety warm and safety blinding and blinding flash. A womanflash. A is woman saved, is and saved, a picture and ais picture made as is ifmade in the as same if in gesturethe same and gesture by virtue and ofby thevirtue accelerated of the accelerated response aresponsefforded by afforded the still by novel the stilltechnology novel technology of police radio, of police to which radio, Weegeeto which listened Weegee as listened keenly as and keenly responsively and responsively as did the as police did the he pictures—thepolice he pictures—the latter no doubtlatter pleasedno doubt with pleased the good with press.the good press. We might then fairly reimagine Weegee as the pres presss photographer as radio artist, a photographic photographic registrar of signalled disturbances in Hertzian space, tapping in to the police department’s realtime radiophonic grid. 2323 “All“All that that radio radio is”, is”, John John Cage Cage once rema remarkedrked to his friend Morton Feldman, “is making audibleaudible something something which which you’re you’re already already in. Youin. areYou bathed are bathed in radio in waves” radio waves” (Cage and (Cage Feldman and Feldman 1993, quoted in Kahn 2011; Luis de Vicente et al. 2011).24 The twist: Weegee made the policeman’s electromagnetic bath not audible, but in an array of chemically stabilized light bursts, visible23 On Hertizan as well. space, Look see again, (Dunne to and end, Raby at 2001 Bystander’s). Accident Victim in Shock, and at its resonant play of light and shadow and reflection and bodies across apertures and planes (Figure 4). We might reconsider that pictures’s shadowy point of contact between a policeman and an accidental killer, which so interested Bystander’s observant authors. But we might see that shadowy spot now not only as “an image of both the car crash itself and [the drivers] own disconnection from it as this moment”, as Bystander reckons it, but also as the invisible radiophonic centre from which radiates the signal that will summon the necessary players here—the suspect, the police man, the photographer—as if centrifugally, so that they can gather tightly enough in one place, for a moment, to allow us this picture. Radio waves join light waves as they pass and refract through cut glass.

Funding: This article was written with the support of a General University Research Grant from the University of Delaware.

23 On Hertizan space, see (Dunne and Raby 2001). 24 In their introduction to the same volume, José Luis de Vicente and Honor Harger credit Kevin Slavin’s pertinent observation that the most compelling “work in this space ‘is not about making the invisible visible: it is about learning to work with the material of the invisible’”. (Luis de Vicente and Harger 2011).

Arts 2019, 8, 108 18 of 20

1993, quoted in Kahn 2011; Luis de Vicente et al. 2011).24 The twist: Weegee made the policeman’s electromagnetic bath not audible, but in an array of chemically stabilized light bursts, visible as well. Look again, to end, at Bystander’s Accident Victim in Shock, and at its resonant play of light and shadow and reﬂection and bodies across apertures and planes (Figure4). We might reconsider that pictures’s shadowy point of contact between a policeman and an accidental killer, which so interested Bystander’s observant authors. But we might see that shadowy spot now not only as “an image of both the car crash itself and [the drivers] own disconnection from it as this moment”, as Bystander reckons it, but also as the invisible radiophonic centre from which radiates the signal that will summon the necessary players here—the suspect, the police man, the photographer—as if centrifugally, so that they can gather tightly enough in one place, for a moment, to allow us this picture. Radio waves join light waves as they pass and refract through cut glass.

Funding: This article was written with the support of a General University Research Grant from the University of Delaware. Acknowledgments: Many sincere thanks to Stephanie Schwartz and to my two anonymous readers at Arts. Thanks to Mariola Alvarez, Tiffany Barber, Jessica Horton, Erin Pauwels, Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, and Delia Solomons for their tremendously helpful comments on an early presentation of this argument. Thanks too to Claartje Van Dijk at the ICP. Conflicts of Interest: The author declares no conflicts of interest.

References

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