Play Audiobook Sample
Flash: The Making of Weegee the Famous: The Making of Weegee the Famous Audiobook
Play Audiobook Sample
(0.00) - 0 listener ratings
Quick Stats About this Audiobook
Total Audiobook Chapters:
Longest Chapter Length:
Shortest Chapter Length:
Average Chapter Length:
Audiobooks by this Author:
Publisher Description
The first definitive biography of Weegee the Famous—photographer, psychic, fiend—from Christoper Bonanos, author of Instant: The Story of Polaroid. Arthur Fellig’s ability to arrive at a crime scene just as the cops did was so uncanny that he renamed himself “Weegee,” claiming that he functioned as a human Ouija board. Weegee documented better than any other photographer the crime, grit, and complex humanity of midcentury New York City. In Flash, we get a portrait not only of the man (both flawed and deeply talented, with generous appetites for publicity, women, and hot pastrami) but also of the fascinating time and place that he occupied. From self-taught immigrant kid to newshound to art-world darling to latter-day caricature—moving from the dangerous streets of New York City to the celebrity culture of Los Angeles and then to Europe for a quixotic late phase of experimental photography and filmmaking—Weegee lived a life just as worthy of documentation as the scenes he captured. With Flash, we have an unprecedented and ultimately moving view of the man now regarded as an innovator and a pioneer, an artist as well as a newsman, whose photographs are among most powerful images of urban existence ever made.
Download and start listening now!
"Weegee, in addition to being one of the greatest photographers ever, was a cartoon character and something of a living myth. This has confused perception for the better part of eighty years. Christopher Bonanos's nuanced and sympathetic account succeeds in merging those three aspects—not only was a lot of the bluster for real, but even the pure baloney was hard-won and contextually grounded. His is a sweet and melancholy book and a doorway into a mostly misremembered past."
— Luc Sante, author of Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York
Quotes
-
“Weegee and his world don’t encourage minimalism, and, fifty years after his death, he has at last acquired a biographer who can keep up with him.”
— New Yorker -
“Snappily written…[a] fine biography”
— Wall Street Journal -
“Bonanos has finally supplied us with the biography Weegee deserves: sympathetic and comprehensive, a scrupulous account with just the right touch of irreverence. Bonanos…takes the photographer seriously without letting him and his self-mythologizing off the hook.”
— New York Times -
“Christopher Bonanos’ superb biography reveals how the man born as Usher Fellig in 1899 reinvented himself as a chronicler of the seedier sides of nocturnal Manhattan in the 1930s.”
— Seattle Times -
“Vivacious…and endlessly entertaining.”
— Santa Fe New Mexican -
“Continually fascinating…deeply researched…compelling.”
— Kirkus Reviews (starred review) -
“The cut and strut of Bonanos’ vivid prose captures the rough-and-tumble of mid-twentieth-century New York…He makes the man behind the camera fully human.”
— Booklist (starred review) -
"[A] superb biograaphy…Bonanos has meticulously researched every aspect of Weegee’s life, filling this fascinating and lively account with amusing and touching anecdotes.”
— Library Journal (starred review) -
"Flash is a crackling portrait of a man and his era—as immediate and as alive as Weegee's pictures themselves. Chris Bonanos vivifies not only his subject, but the long lost New York that he lived in, and that made him.
— Daniel Okrent, New York Times bestselling author of Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition -
"[T]he charismatic Weegee takes the listener on a thrill ride.
— AudioFile
Awards
-
Winner of the 2018 National Book Critics Circle Award for Best Biography
-
A Library Journal Best Books of the Year selection in Nonfiction
-
A New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice of Now out in Paperback
-
Among longlisted titles for Library Journal Best Books of the Year, 2018
-
Nominated for National Book Critics Circle Award - Nominee, 2018
-
Winner of National Book Critics Circle Award - Winner, 2019
Flash: The Making of Weegee the Famous Listener Reviews
Be the first to write a review about this audiobook!
About Christopher Bonanos
Christopher Bonanos is city editor at New York magazine, where he covers arts and culture and urban affairs. He is the author of Instant: The Story of Polaroid. He lives in New York City with his wife and their son.
About Graham Halstead
Graham Halstead, an Earphones Award and Audie Award–winning narrator, is a professionally trained actor and voice artist. As an actor, he has worked internationally in Edinburgh and London, as well as at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. His youthful, easy-flowing voice can be heard on television and radio voicing spots for Airborne and Allegra.