[HN Gopher] Photographer Charles Ebbets takes iconic photo "Lunc...
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Photographer Charles Ebbets takes iconic photo "Lunch atop a
skyscraper" (1932)
Author : bookofjoe
Score : 81 points
Date : 2021-05-29 12:44 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.reddit.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.reddit.com)
| cesaref wrote:
| I think it's pretty unusual to have photos of photographers at
| this point in time. Noone was interested in knowing how photos
| were taken, the subject wasn't the photographer. Photographer as
| personality happened in the 60s.
|
| Saying that, the photo in question does look rather fine. The
| equipment looks right, i'd say that it's a Speed Graphic, and it
| looks to be the right sort of model, looks like it's got a
| rangefinder although he's using the wire sights for framing.
| Holding the front bed with the left hand for stability looks to
| be about right, so this i'd suggest is definitely a photographer,
| not a model/actor playing a photographer if you see what I mean.
| vages wrote:
| In the Wikipedia article on "Lunch atop a skyscraper", there is a
| section about the process they went through to attribute the
| photo to Charles Ebbets:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunch_atop_a_Skyscraper#Author
| There is no mention of this photo, and it looks very little like
| the photo of him on the (deceased) artist's home page:
| https://www.ebbetsphoto-graphics.com/page/about-the-artist/#...
|
| I'm quite certain that the picture is not what it claims to be.
| But I'm glad the Reddit thread got me to check it out.
| quilombodigital wrote:
| Hum. This is a nice shot, but I guess the affirmation is wrong.
| Lets think a little about geometry... I am not a new yorker, but
| by simply looking at google maps, at the lunch photo, they have
| the Central Park at their back, and the photographer has the
| Empire State behind him, so I guess he should be photographing
| the Hudson River or just posing for the photo.
| nbar wrote:
| New respect for steeple jacks!
| hellbannedguy wrote:
| The guy at the end is drinking. I though it was just water. Times
| have changed. My dad worked on Bart during the 70. He said,
| drinking was commonplace, at least amomg electricians.
|
| The first man from the right has been identified as Slovak worker
| Gustav (Gusti) Popovic from the village of Vysny Slavkov in the
| Levoca District of Slovakia. Popovic was originally a lumberjack
| and carpenter. In 1932 he sent his wife Maria (Mariska) a
| postcard with this photograph on which he wrote, "Don't you
| worry, my dear Mariska, as you can see I'm still with bottle.
| Your Gusti."
| bananapear wrote:
| Here's a clip of Fred Dibnah (steeplejack) climbing a chimney
| without any safety gear - https://youtu.be/T00zEt1-3VA?t=784
|
| "I were criticised for saying I'd had a few pints before I
| climbed up... well I'd say you want to try this bloody job
| sober!"
| cpach wrote:
| I feel slightly dizzy just by looking at this (^_^)
| Stratoscope wrote:
| The reddit thread has some interesting speculation and links,
| along with the usual garbage. Summarizing a few of the better
| parts...
|
| The photographer in that first picture may not be Ebbets. This is
| apparently him:
|
| https://www.ebbetsphoto-graphics.com/page/home/#/page/home/
|
| https://www.ebbetsphoto-graphics.com/page/about-the-artist/#...
|
| Credit to /u/notbob1959 for some detective work:
|
| https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/nn4q4j/h...
|
| WaPo has a good article, and Wikipedia has some more info:
|
| https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/09/01/one-most-i...
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunch_atop_a_Skyscraper
|
| More high steel photos here:
|
| https://historydaily.org/charles-ebbets-lunchtime-atop-a-sky...
|
| https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/lunch-atop-a-skyscraper-sto...
|
| Some of these photos use the same camera trick that Harold Lloyd
| used in _Safety Last!_. The camera angle makes it look like it
| would be a direct fall to street level, when in fact there is a
| solid floor below, just out of the camera 's view:
|
| http://www.westerncostumeresearch.com/western-costume-resear...
|
| https://silentlocations.com/2012/02/29/how-harold-lloyd-film...
|
| That's not to say any of this wasn't dangerous! Just perhaps not
| quite as dangerous as they look.
| ageitgey wrote:
| Keep in mind that 95% of viral "Unknown picture of a famous
| moment you've never seen before" posts on the internet are not
| actually they thing they claim they are. This is definitely not a
| picture of Charles Ebbets taking the "Lunch atop a skyscaper"
| photo.
|
| That doesn't mean they aren't cool pictures or interesting in
| their own right, but don't believe any title you see on a reddit
| post.
|
| Edit: And this is not to pick on reddit in particular. Even
| historians make these mistakes. Here's a time I found a respected
| historian making published (but incorrect) claim of the date
| people started using Christmas cards because the highly respected
| newspaper archive he was using for research had mis-dated the
| scanned pages of a newspaper under '1800s' instead of '1900s':
| https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/k6inyt/ive_a...
| MaxLeiter wrote:
| You say "definitely not" so surely. It may not be, but if
| you're going to disprove a claim you should probably provide
| something to back it up, especially if the claim itself has no
| proof. It's easy to read your comment and believe you, but it's
| just as easy to read the post and believe it.
| cerved wrote:
| you'll find comments in the post explaining that he's facing
| the wrong direction
| galgot wrote:
| Suspenders AND belt. Safety first.
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(page generated 2021-05-30 23:02 UTC)