The Photographers Behind “Lunch atop a Skyscraper” #photography #history #art

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER'S PHOTOGRAPHER?

The iconic photograph “Lunch atop a Skyscraper,” showing eleven construction workers casually eating lunch on a steel beam high above New York City in 1932, is known worldwide — yet the photographers behind it remain somewhat mysterious. The image was taken during the construction of Rockefeller Center and was likely staged as part of a publicity campaign to promote the new skyscraper.

The photograph is most commonly attributed to Charles C. Ebbets, a skilled photographer and adventurer, though two other photographers — Thomas Kelley and William Leftwich — were also present that day, making authorship difficult to confirm. What is known is that these men worked in incredibly risky conditions right alongside the workers, balancing their cameras on narrow beams with no safety harnesses.

Their goal wasn’t just to capture a construction site — it was to immortalize the grit and courage of the immigrant laborers who built America’s skyline. Whether taken by Ebbets or one of his colleagues, the photograph was a collaboration between fearless workers and equally daring photographers, suspended together between danger and history.

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