Some Sepia photos I've been hanging onto

 

A famous photograph of men lunching on an I-beam (640 feet above the New York streets) while building Rockefeller Center during the depression. It was planned on September 20, 1932, on the 69th floor of the RCA Building, It appeared in the Sunday photo supplement of the New York Herald Tribune on October 2, 1932. For many years noobody knew who the photographer had been, but it was credited to Charles C. Ebbets in 2003. Incidentally, the floor below it had been finished already, so this view kind of belies the fact of only being 20 feet or so above another floor.

The rest of the story...

A movie was made of the immigrants who worked as construction iron workers...I'm not sure who the director was...probably an immigrant. There was some mention of Irish immigrants, and American Indians. Only a few of the men in the photo have been identified.

And then there's another immigrant, 

Sergio Furnari, to whom the photograph spoke...

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Sergio Furnari's "Lunchtime on a Skyscraper"

"...Decades later a poster of the photograph hung in shop window on Fifth Avenue when sculptor Sergio Furnari walked by. The Sicilian-born Furnari was new to America and the image captivated him. The faces of the workers—mostly immigrants—spoke to him. 

“ 'I know how they felt,' he later recalled to New York Times reporter Leslie Chess Feller, 'I looked at those faces and knew I had to capture them in clay. Like me, they were immigrants, poor people who worked hard.'

"Furnari started out creating a life-size version of the photograph. The figures were executed in terra cotta, cement, fiberglass and metal. One-by-one the completed statues were welded to an I-beam which Furnari attached to his truck. The work in progress was exhibited around the city, wherever the artist would park.

"As he worked on the astonishing sculpture he said 'Those men were real people. Each one has, I think, a soul. I feel it when I sculpt them, when I touch their faces and make their features come out of the clay. It’s like I keep their spirit alive.'

"Furnari called his work “Lunchtime on a Skyscraper—A Tribute to America’s Heroes.” That title would take on new significance on the morning of September 11, 2001.

"The work was nearly finished. Only one figure was left to complete. That morning Furnari and his wife, illustrator Julia Licht, watched the collapse of the World Trade Towers from their apartment window.

"Within the next few weeks working heroes would have a new meaning for Furnari and his sculpture.

photo by Alice Lum

Each figure was executed with minute detail -- photo by Tien Mao

Furnari's sculpture became a mobile piece, touring the country -- photo newyorkdailyphoto.blogspot.com



The work was completed in October. Meanwhile hundreds of workmen toiled in the still-smoldering ruins of Ground Zero. “The twin towers were made by the ironworkers, and it was the ironworkers that had to remove the whole steel out of Ground Zero,” he later related.

:Furnari transported the inspiring work to the site as both a tribute and an encouragement to the workmen. 'When they were down in the hole, nobody was smiling. But when they were by the statue, they were inspired, and realized their work was appreciated,' he said. The sculpture uplifted the workers for five months.

"In 2003 Furnari attached the 25-foot, one-ton sculpture onto his truck and set off on a nationwide road trip in hopes of bringing ;the American and New York spirit all over America.' He encouraged people across the country who saw the work to sign his truck. Before the end of the tour, millions of Americans had seen the sculpture.

''

"Upon its return to the city “Lunchtime on a Skyscraper” became a sort of mobile museum, appearing here and there and always attracting a great amount of attention. Unfortunately, in January 2007 it attracted the wrong type of attention.

"Thieves broke into the Furnari’s Queens facility and one of the figures was unbolted and stolen.

“I feel like they stole a part of me a part of my life,” the artist told a New York Post reporter. The 100-lb. figure was never recovered.

"The essence of the work moves the observer and in 2010 a copy was commissioned by owners of a Valparaiso, Indiana restaurant named “Industrial Revolution.” One of the owners, Mike Lesson, explained 'The restaurant is dedicated to everyday people who take risks and is a tribute to the workers who built this country.'

"Furnari still tours his sculpture around on his truck—a newer one than the one which first transported the work—providing a unexpected delight for New Yorkers an d tourists lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time."

SOURCE: Daytonian in Manhattan: The stories behind the buildings, statues and other points of interest that make Manhattan fascinating, by Tom Miller, HERE.

I don't know who drew this, but I firmly agree with what RBG said. What a woman. What a leader! May we all live our lives with as much dedication to our belief in democracy and freedom of all people as she did.

All alone sitting by the shore. Sepia Saturday shows this gentleman, probably taken sometime before the 1960s...I'd guess the 30's. Check out what other's have come up with as this may inspire them. And by the time Saturday comes, it will have some details of the photo, giving it credit and date (I hope.)

A more modern photo of a friend who recently visited the shore, listening to the waves in a seashell. Well, you do know about that, I hope. Try it if you haven't ever done so.