Nazis loved this photo of America’s class divide so much, they allegedly used it as propaganda
But Weegee’s iconic photo has a twist — the whole thing was staged
The first thing you notice about Weegee’s photograph, “The Critic,” is the radiant white gowns of two society ladies heading into the Metropolitan Opera on the opening night of the season. They break their way through the sea of the dark masses seamlessly, clearly accustomed to people getting out of their way as they pass. But as you look a little closer, you’ll notice a dishevelled figure to the right of the ladies, glancing up at them scornfully, her dark shabbiness in stark contrast with the ladies’ white finery. In just one image, Weegee (née Arthur Fellig) captured America’s parallel societies clashing uncomfortably.
The photo, which was shot in 1943, was so potent that the Nazis allegedly used it as propaganda. According to the author and photography curator Miles Barth, the photo was printed and dropped from planes above Allied forces during combat in Anzio, Italy. The image was captioned, “GIs, is this what you’re fighting for?” In this possibly apocryphal tale, it apparently landed in the hands of a young soldier named Charles Kavanaugh, who was hiding out in a foxhole and grabbed hold of the pamphlet, only to recognize his own grandmother, Mrs. George Washington Kavanaugh, as one of the well-heeled society ladies in the photo. “Kavenaugh [sic] remembers being too embarrassed to mention to anyone that the woman in the photograph was his grandmother,” Barth wrote.
But the photo that supposedly revealed the true face of America was staged. Weegee’s assistant Louis Liotta later revealed that he had been instructed to pick up a drunk in the Bowery, ply her with cheap wine, and then thrust her into the scene as Weegee was taking the photo. So much for journalistic integrity.
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