WEEGEE: Top Free-Lance Tells How He Does It. (In Photography Handbook No. 10 1942).

Fawcett, 1942. Edited by Norman C. Lipton. Wraps, 146 pages. Includes color nude foldout. Pages age-toned and fragile, cover creased, loss at bottom of spine, which is partially detached. Features articles, “’Weegee’ Top Free-Lance Tells How He Does It” by Norman C. Lipton and “Birds in Flight” by Hugo H. Schroeder. Kodachrome cover photo by Paul Garrison. Chapters with multiple articles on For Better Pictures, Technique, Foto Projects, Build It Yourself, Photography in Brief, and Salon Section, including photographs by Stanley Rayfield, Jack Garber, Boris Dobro, F. Berko, H.S. Ulan, Andre de Dienes, William T. Hoff, David Darvas, Alexander Alland, Harry Menkin, Roy Pinney, and L.E. Roubian.  Lacks pages 32–36 in Salon Section with photos by William Mortensen, Marie Ross, Leo S. Pavell, and William Stahl. Summary:

The Photography Handbook No. 10, published by Fawcett in 1942, is a technical manual for enthusiasts that blends DIY ingenuity with professional grit. Its standout feature is a contribution by the legendary crime photographer Weegee(Arthur Fellig).

Key Highlights

• Weegee’s  Article": This iconic article provides a raw, firsthand look at his methods for capturing New York’s underworld. He discusses his use of the Speed Graphic camera, the importance of "getting there first," and his philosophy on news photography.

• Wartime DIY: Reflecting 1942’s material shortages, the book focuses heavily on building darkroom gear, such as homemade enlargers and lighting reflectors, from scrap materials.

• Technical Workshops: Includes "Foto-hints" on flash synchronization, infrared photography, and specialized chemistry for developing film at home.

• The Salon Portfolio: Features a gallery of "Pictorialist" works intended to inspire amateurs to move from snapshots to fine art.

Concise Summary and Bio

This volume is a quintessential wartime artifact that bridges the gap between practical craftsmanship and hard-boiled photojournalism. It is most notable for Weegee’s masterclass on "tabloid" style, teaching readers how to find drama and technical perfection in the dark streets of the city.

Weegee (1899–1968), born Ascher Fellig in Austro-Hungarian Galicia (now Ukraine), was a pioneering American photojournalist famous for his gritty, candid black-and-white street photography of 1930s and 1940s New York City.Immigrating to the United States as a child, Fellig adopted his pseudonym—a phonetic play on "Ouija"—due to his uncanny, quasi-telepathic ability to arrive at crime scenes, fires, and accidents moments after or even before emergency responders. Equipped with a Speed Graphic press camera, high-contrast flash, and a police radio transceiver in his car, he captured raw, unflinching images of urban tragedy, organized crime, tenement life, and nightlife subcultures. His seminal 1945 photobook Naked City cemented his national reputation and went on to inspire film noir aesthetics across Hollywood. Later in his career, Weegee expanded into experimental optics, filmmaking, and celebrity caricature, leaving behind an enduring visual narrative of mid-century urban America that earned him inclusion in major museum institutions like the Museum of Modern Art.