Charles C. Ebbets

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Charles Clyde Ebbets (1905 - 1978) was an American photographer.

1 Biography
2 Photographs
3 Trivia
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Biography

Ebbets was born in Gadsden, Alabama. He bought his first camera at the age of eight by charging it to his mothers account at a local drugstore.

Ebbets started his career during the 1920s in St. Petersburg, Florida as a still photographer. He eventually became involved in early motion picture work both in front of and behind the camera. In 1924, he had a brief stint as an actor playing the role of an adventuresome African hunter known as "Wally Renny". In addition to his photographic endeavors, throughout the 20s he had many adventurous jobs including being a pilot, a wing-walk, an auto racer, a wrestler, a hunter. He was also prizefighter Jack Dempsey's official staff photographer, a staff photographer for the Miami Daily News and a freelance photographer.

In 1927, the first attempt was made to traverse the entirety of the dirt road from Miami to Tampa called the "Tamiami Trail". Ebbets was chosen to be one of the three men making the trip by virtue of his extensive knowledge of the region and wildlife and his ability with a camera to document the adventure for newspapers and the Essex Motor Company who sponsored the trip and car. The photos of their success were carried in newspapers across the country.

In the 1930s Ebbets was a well known photographer and had work published in the New York Times. In 1932, he was appointed photographic director for the Rockefeller Center which was under construction in New York. In September of that year, he would take the photo which would later define his work and which is now regarded by many^{[name a specific person/group]} as the most famous photo of the 20th century, Lunchtime atop a Skyscraper. In 1933 Ebbets moved back to Florida. His interests were now focused on the exciting growth in the state, the unique Seminole Indians and the vast expanse of untouched nature in the Everglades. In 1935, Ebbets became the first official Associated Press photographer in the state. His photo of the infamous 1935 hurricane were circulated worldwide.

Ebbets broke his back while shooting photos in the Everglades, an injury which kept him out of the military during World War II. However, because he was a licensed pilot and a photographer, he served as an attache to the Army Air Corps Special Services and would later be assigned to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical Institute, which was training the American and British Royal Air Forces. During the war, he spent time in South America working under General "Hap" Arnold who oversaw the training of American and British pilots at bases in Brazil.

Ebbets returned to his Miami home at the end of World War II and would be one of the three founders of the City of Miami Publicity Bureau. For the next 17 years he was the Chief Photographer of the City of Miami. During this period Ebbets would expand his collection of Everglades birds and wildlife and would document the growth of Miami as a mecca of the tourist industry. He is credited with creating the first cheesecake photograph.^{[citation needed]} His photographs were featured in the Miami Daily News, The New York Times, National Geographic, Outdoors Unlimited, Field & Stream, Popular Boating, U.S. Camera, Outdoor Life, Look Magazine, Popular Photography, and others.

Throughout the 1970s Ebbets photographed American life. On July 14 1978 at the age of 72 Ebbets died of cancer. At the time of his death he had over 300 nationally published images.

He was honored by Corbis, which has at least 21 of Ebbets's pictures in its collection.

[edit] Photographs

Ebbets' two most famous photos were taken during the construction of the Rockefeller Center in New York in 1932. Many of the construction workers seen in the pictures were Mohawk Indians who were hired a great deal in the steel industry. Lunchtime Atop a Skyscraper depicts eleven men sitting on a girder eating lunch, their feet dangling from the beams hundreds of feet above the New York streets below was snapped on September 29, 1932, and appeared in the New York Herald Tribune shortly after. The photo was taken on the 69th floor in the last several months of construction. Resting on a Girder is a picture of the same workers lying down on the beam taking a nap.

[edit] Trivia

It wasn't until October 2003 that Charles C. Ebbets was officially recognized by the Bettman Archive as the photographer of Lunchtime Atop a Skyscraper and dozens of other famous Bettman Archive photos which had previously been mis-marked or were marked as "photographer unknown".