Sta.sh
General Photography from 3wyl
Whilst the most famous photographs from across the years often feature famine, death, destruction and war, it's sometimes refreshing to catch a glimpse of one or two that don't exhibit depression, demise and conflict. Photo-journalism can work both ways to brief the viewer of an image on what it's like to step into somebody else's shoes. It can shock, bring a tear or even, by some miracle - a smile.
Lunch Atop A SkyScraper does exactly that. It provokes a smile, it features across the world in postcards, books, greeting cards and other formats and ultimately it tugs at that part of your heart that knows there can be good in the world. So what makes it famous?
The Photograph itself shows eleven working men eating lunch, sitting on a steel girder. Nothing extraordinary about that right? Wrong. Their feet are dangling 256 metres above New York City. Nobody actually knows who took it, although some credits have gone to Charles C Ebbets or Lewis Hine in the past - Corbis acquired the glass negative in 1995. It shows a light hearted moment with an underlying tone of depression. Why? Because the workers are hanging out above the streets of New York without any safety harness to speak of. Since it was taken during the time of the Great Depression it speaks of the willingness to take any job, regardless of safety and health.
Investigations in more recent years have suggested that the Photograph was staged as part of a promotional shoot by the RockeFeller center promoting its new skyscraper. Regardless though, the message is still there, the workers are still real and the sheer bravery and audacity of the men involved is undeniable.
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