There's also something to be said for publishing an image of men seemingly not having a care in the world during a time when so many people were suffering. The photo was actually staged - as many photos of similar subject matter were at the time (including construction of the Empire State Building) - to promote real estate.
Perhaps even more interesting is that though the photo seems to document workers casually having lunch, there was nothing at all casual about the image. What is also known is that a completely finished floor was likely beneath the workers, just a few feet below.Įven if the finished floor existed, the image is nonetheless terrifying to view, given that the workers aren't wearing any safety gear of any kind and that they are some 800 feet above the streets below. What is known about the photo is that it was taken on the 69th floor of the RCA Building toward the end of its construction. That meant switching out the plates as he stood hundreds of feet in the air on a steel girder. In the image above, you can see how the photographer had to carry the glass plates for the camera in a leather case on his back. Whoever took the photo, they had to defy death to do so, just like the workers they photographed. That's because there were three photographers known to be on the site that day - Ebbets, William Leftwich, and Thomas Kelley. However, the Rockefeller archives list the famous image's photographer as "Unknown."
#SKYSCRAPER PICTURES PROFESSIONAL#
That includes the original receipt for Ebbets' work at 30 Rock on his professional letterhead.
Though, according to the New York Times, no one knows who took the photo.Įbbets is a logical choice for having taken the photo - he was appointed as the Photographic Director for the development of Rockefeller Center (the larger development of which Rockefeller Plaza is a part) in 1932 - the same year the iconic photo was taken.įurthermore, the Ebbets family claims to have verified records that prove their forebears took the photo. Many people believe that the image was taken by Charles C. However, since Hine didn't document the construction of Rockefeller Plaza, the Lunch Atop a Skyscraper photo cannot be his. You can see obvious similarities in the subject matter between the photo above by Hine and the featured image at the beginning of the article, so it's understandable why people might attribute both images to him. In the image above, Hine captured a worker raising the mast at the Empire State Building in 1932. Hine (Yale University Art Gallery ), via Wikimedia Commons That makes sense, though, because in 1930 Hine was commissioned to document the construction of the Empire State Building.īy Lewis W.
The image was first published in the New York Herald-Tribune on October 2nd, 1932.īut what many people have assumed over the years is that the photograph was taken at the Empire State Building, when it was actually taken at 30 Rockefeller Center in Midtown New York.īecause so many people erroneously believed that the image was of the Empire State Building's construction, credit for the photo is often given to Lewis Hine. In fact, it was taken on September 20, 1932, during the height of the Great Depression. One thing that's commonly said about this photo is that it was taken in 1932. Here's the story behind the iconic death-defying image about which most people know very little. There are many misconceptions about this image - including that it was taken by Lewis Hine in 1932 at the unfinished Empire State Building in New York City. It's a common fixture in history books and history-related websites, yet most people know nothing about the photo beyond the fact that it gives them vertigo when they view it. I'm willing to bet that you've seen the photo above at one point or another.
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