Strange Days, Dangerous Nights: Photos from the Speed Graphic Era

Fat men's races and fall-out shelters, murder victims and loose women, cheerleaders and immigrants, celebrities and children in distress were just some of the urban curiosities splashed across the pages of city newspapers during the Speed Graphic era (1930s-1950s). Championed by acclaimed news photographers like Arthur Fellig (a.k.a. Weegee), the Speed Graphic camera produced a new visual style that was as blunt, powerful, and immediate as a left hook.

Driven by the desire to fill newspaper pages with sensational images, press photographers shot everything, day and night: automobile accidents, fires, murders, all the cop news that fought for a hot spot on the Front Page. And they covered uncounted numbers of social affairs--pictures called "grip-and-grins" in the trade: school events, sports, celebrities, oddities both of nature and humanity.

Author: Larry Millett
Publisher: Borealis Books
Published: 10/15/2004
Pages: 216
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 3.23lbs
Size: 11.36h x 10.36w x 0.91d
ISBN: 9780873515047
Award: Minnesota Book Award - Finalist

Review Citation(s):
New Yorker (The) 04/11/2005 pg. 77

About the Author
Larry Millett worked for three decades as a reporter, editor, and architectural critic for the St. Paul Pioneer Press before retiring in 2002. His books include Lost Twin Cities (awarded an AIA International Architecture Book Award), Twin Cities Then and Now and five mysteries including The Disappearance of Sherlock Holmes He is currently at work on a comprehensive guide to the architecture of Minneapolis and St. Paul, to be published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press. John Sandford is the pen name of Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, New York Times bestselling novelist, and amateur photographer John Camp. His books include The Hanged Man's Song, Hidden Prey, and Naked Prey.