The critic

The Critic

We are going to present you this picture of Weegee named “The Critic” taken in New York City in 1943. Weegee was the first photojournalist in history. This photograph was taken at the Metropolitan Opera season. We are confronted to the encounter between different worlds and so, we are going to show you different kinds of encounters.

Firstly, we can see the meeting among the characters which consists of a few men on the left side, then the ladies in the foreground and another woman on the right. The main encounter happens between the ladies in the centre of the image and the woman on the right side. In the scene a drunk woman bumps into the ladies who pass over without paying attention to her. As a matter of fact, the original title of the picture was “The fashionable people”. And with it Weegee wanted to show us how the high class discriminates the lower class. That’s why he renamed it “The Critic”.

Another encounter in this picture, occurs when a bunch of people, discovering the scene, stop to watch the “fashionable” ladies and the awkward situation.

Besides, the ladies are going to another encounter which is the opening of the Metropolitan Opera season so these are the encounters that can be seen in the picture itself.

Secondly, the moment when the photographer comes across the scene and takes the picture could be considerated another kind of encounter. We can think that the photographer was surprised by the scene and took the picture. However, the dirty secret of this photograph is that the encounter between the women wasn’t unexpected. Weegee had planned the meeting with the drunk woman bumping into the ladies at that precise moment. It was all a set-up.

Finally, the last but not least encounter presents itself at the very moment when you are watching the picture. It is remarkable that the scene that we can see happened 70 years ago, encountering two eras at the same time. The one would be inmerssed in the 40s whereas the other one would be right now.

To conclude the analysis, we can say that we found interesting the idea that in a particular encounter there can be simultaneous encounters as it has been seen through this picture.

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