Horrible Distorted Portraits Of Celebrities As You’ve Never Seen Them
1950s, Queen Elizabeth II
Weegee (Arthur Fellig)/International Center Of Photography/Getty Images
Photographs for “Distortions” series, a project that resulted in experimental portraits of celebrities and political figures.
As legend tells it, Arthur Fellig earned the nickname “Weegee” during his early career as a freelance press photographer in New York City. His apparent sixth sense for crime often led him to a scene well ahead of the police. Observers likened this sense, actually derived from tuning his radio to the police frequency, to the Ouija board, the popular fortune-telling game. Spelling it phonetically, Fellig took Weegee as his professional name.
In the late 1940s, Weegee began experimenting with photographic manipulation. His subjects were often film stars, world leaders both past and present, and figures of the art world. He even turned the camera upon himself.
1960s, Andy Warhol
Weegee (Arthur Fellig)/International Center Of Photography/Getty Images
April 17, 1961, Elizabeth Taylor
Weegee (Arthur Fellig)/International Center Of Photography/Getty Images
1958, Brigitte Bardot
Weegee (Arthur Fellig)/International Center Of Photography/Getty Images
Late 1950s, Mona Lisa
Weegee (Arthur Fellig)/International Center Of Photography/Getty Images
ca.1965, Barbra Streisand
Weegee (Arthur Fellig)/International Center Of Photography/Getty Images
ca. 1954, Marlon Brando
Weegee (Arthur Fellig)/International Center Of Photography/Getty Images
1966, Mao Zedong
Weegee (Arthur Fellig)/International Center Of Photography/Getty Images
c. 1960s, Judy Garland
Weegee (Arthur Fellig)/International Center Of Photography/Getty Images
June 22, 1961, Fidel Castro
Weegee (Arthur Fellig)/International Center Of Photography/Getty Images
c. 1960s, J. Edgar Hoover
Weegee (Arthur Fellig)/International Center Of Photography/Getty Images
1950s, Audrey Hepburn
Weegee (Arthur Fellig)/International Center Of Photography/Getty Images
circa 1960, Marilyn Monroe
Weegee (Arthur Fellig)/International Center Of Photography/Getty Images
circa 1950, Weegee
Weegee (Arthur Fellig)/International Center Of Photography/Getty Images
