Lunch Atop A Skyscraper

Lunch atop a skyscraper de Charles C. Ebbets

Certainement l'une des images les plus connues de Manhattan, cette photo est entourée d'un mystère qui perdure encore aujourd'hui. Onze hommes assis côte à côte sur une poutre d'acier. Visiblement, ils sont perchés très haut, car derrière se dessine le contour de la Big Apple.

Près d'un siècle plus tard, ce cliché, qui reflète une partie de l'histoire économique et sociale de New York, fascine toujours. Captée lors de la construction du Rockefeller Center le 20 septembre 1932, cette image de la culture américaine a été l'objet de nombreuses histoires, spéculations et débats.

Martine Doucet revient sur l'histoire de cette photo à la chronique « Derrière l'image ».

Men at lunch, réalisé par Seán Ó Cualáin, 2012 Lunch atop a Skyscraper (New York Construction Workers Lunching on a Crossbeam) is a famous black-and-white photograph taken during construction of the RCA Building (renamed the GE Building in 1988) at Rockefeller Center in New York City, United States.

The photograph depicts eleven men eating lunch, seated on a girder with their feet dangling 256 meters (840 feet)[1] above the New York City streets. The men have no safety harness, which was linked to the Great Depression, when people were willing to take any job regardless of safety issues.[1] The photo was taken on September 20, 1932 on the 69th floor of the RCA Building during the last months of construction. According to archivists, the photo was in fact prearranged.[1] Although the photo shows real construction workers, it is believed that the moment was staged by the Rockefeller Center to promote its new skyscraper.[1] The photo appeared in the Sunday photo supplement of the New York Herald Tribune on October 2. The glass negative is now owned by Corbis who acquired it from the Acme Newspictures archive in 1995.

Formerly attributed to "unknown", it has been credited to Charles C. Ebbets since 2003[2][3] and erroneously to Lewis Hine. The Corbis corporation is now officially returning its status to unknown although sources continue to credit Ebbets.[4][5][6][7]

There have been numerous claims regarding the identities of the men in the image. The movie Men at Lunch[8] traces some of the men to possible Irish origin, but the director plans to do further interviews to follow up among others claims from Swedish relatives.[9] From the left, number three is Joseph Eckner, number four is Michael Breheny, number five is Albin Svensson and number six with the cigarette is John Patrick Madden. The first man from the right is Slovakian worker Gusto Popovic who sent this picture home to his wife[10] who indicates that there is actually a floor directly underneath the frame. The third from the right is Paul Deak.

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