At least three photographers were on site that day in September 1932: Charles C. Ebbets, William Leftwich and Thomas Kelley. We don’t know which of them captured the iconic image published in the New York Herald Tribune, but we do know it was one of several staged shots. In one, an ironworker holds an American flag in the air to make it look like it’s planted atop the distant Empire State Building. In another, a worker rides a block of stone as it's hoisted into the air.
There are also multiple versions of ironworkers hamming it up on that same steel beam. In one, they grin and doff their hats for the camera, clearly in on the moment. The most jaw-dropping shot shows them pretending to nap on the beam, legs dangling into the void. Thankfully, there was probably a floor or other structure—maybe some scaffolding—just out of frame. After all, they were building a skyscraper, complete with floors and ceilings.
Plenty of people have made claims—often competing ones—about who the men in the ”Lunch Atop a Skyscraper” photo actually are. But so far, Rockefeller Center archivist Christine Roussel has only been able to confirm two: Joseph Eckner, third from the left; and Joe Curtis, third from the right. With more than 40,000 people involved in building 30 Rockefeller Plaza, figuring out who is who in old construction photos is no easy task.
Over the decades, many viewers have mistaken “Lunch Atop a Skyscaper” for the work of Lewis Wickes Hine, the photographer who documented the construction of the Empire State Building. That confusion has led to the widespread but incorrect belief that the photo shows workers from that project. In truth, uncertainty still surrounds every aspect of the image—who took it, who’s in it, even exactly where it’s shot. And because it’s a publicity photo cleverly disguised as a candid moment, it remains one of those iconic images that’s often mislabeled and misunderstood. Ultimately, it’s that blend of mystery and manufactured spontaneity that keeps it so endlessly fascinating.
