Marilyn Monroe Distortion

c. 1960

Marilyn Monroe Distortion, c. 1960. Weegee (American, 1899–1968). Gelatin silver print; image: 28 x 26.4 cm (11 x 10 3/8 in.); paper: 35.3 x 27.7 cm (13 7/8 x 10 7/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Diann G. Mann and Thomas A. Mann 2019.31 Weegee, who gained renown as a photojournalist, spent his last two decades making creative work that was the opposite of reportage: distorted photographs. He devised a number of techniques for distorting images. This image may be the result of inserting curved glass or plastic between the enlarger lens and the photographic paper or exposing the negative to heat, then printing from it, or some other secret method. Weegee, whose family emigrated from what is now the Ukraine in 1909, began working as a street photographer at age fourteen.