Talk:Lunchtime atop a Skyscraper

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Note that the correct title of this article should be "Lunch atop a Skyscraper" and not "Lunchtime Atop a Skyscraper". Perhaps someone with sufficient privileges can move it? --84.151.227.46 19:45, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

It seems odd to say that the one is the correct title and the other isn't. Rather, one has more normal orthography than the other. Anyway, I'll make the change. -- Hoary 10:37, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

I have bought a large Posterprint about 12 years ago and it has its title printed in the left bottom corner. It is "Lunchtime Atop a Skyscraper". [kddh]

btw.: If we knew who owns the rights today, we may ask him wether he allows wikipedia to place a image here. [kddh] ....posted at 12:47, 29 December 2006 by 62.104.87.176

I don't think it's significant that one publisher cares to capitalize this preposition. As for reproduction rights, it's not a matter of asking for permission to place an image on WP; instead, it's one of asking for a small version of the image to be copylefted, or more precisely released with the GFDL. -- Hoary 13:03, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

Also note, the Bettmann Archive lists the name of the photo as "New York Construction Workers Lunching on a Crossbeam" (yes, of course, they also did not know who acknowledge Ebbetts as the photographer until 2003). I think we should be free to use the grammatically correct capitalization. TheMindsEye 16:22, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

For what it's worth, The New York Times is selling prints under the title "Construction Workers Lunching on a Crossbeam, 1932".[1] Ebbets was uncredited until 2003, so there is no official title of his choosing. The fact that "Lunchtime Atop a Skyscraper" appears on a dorm room poster does not, to me, seem determinative.

From what is recorded of the (simultaneous) construction of the Empire State Building, these guys would have a safety net a few yards beneath them, which the cameraman has cropped. I don't know if Ebbets ever admitted it (according to his daughter, he had a "sense of humor and adventure"), but to my eye this is clearly a staged photo. No doubt the workers were real, and their high-wire nonchalance came with the territory. But they were recruited into posing and sitting in a row with their various props, and turning the sky 800 feet above New York into an image of (precarious) domesticity. That's the gimmick here. Sandover 14:04, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

It's undoubtedly posed, though there is some dispute regarding the safety net (if there was one, it doesn't seem to me to diminish the effect). But what I'm most interested in from others is the background on the photo. Who were these 11 men? How did Ebbetts come to conceive the shot? Backstory, please, I can not find any elsewhere.Mrbrianlk 01:32, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Who were these men? My sister and I think the 3rd from the left was our Grandfather, Bernhard Lawrence. His physical looks (short stubby legs) and dress make him a match. He made his living in NYC working buildings and bridges so it fits. We would like to know the names of all in the picture.

The man on the right is the grandfather of a good friend of mine (Irish Catholic from Brooklyn, Mr. Flynn), he is missing a finger on his left hand. Apparently some of the men were Native American (so said my friend's father and another friend of mine mentioned this as well). However I have heard the photo of the men was actually superimposed over a shot with more altitude (the son of the man on the right said it would make no sense to eat lunch that high up), giving the impression that they are very high up. I actually came to wikipedia to see if that was true. Now I'm not sure. Anyone know? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 72.229.151.216 (talk) 04:36, 27 January 2007 (UTC).