
“Lunch Atop a Skyscraper” is the photo that I chose to use for this essay. I first saw this picture in my dad’s house a while back. In this photo you can see the time period difference of workers back then and now. The carelessness of the workers dangling their feet on top of a skyscraper with no ropes attached to them shows how during that time period they showed no real precaution of safety. The looks on the men’s faces shows that they have no worry in the world regardless of the fact that they are sitting hundreds of feet up in the air. This photograph is considered a pretty famous one, taken when New York was rising and times seemed to be good. 

One of the first things that I have noticed about this picture is the quality itself of the photo. This helps me determine that this photo is quite old considering the camera had to have been old as well. The photo is in black and white, which automatically one can assume this was not a very recent picture. The details in the picture aren’t very fine either. The eleven men sitting on the beam are pretty clear but the city in the background is blurry and not very defined. The background is white and grey and looks washed out. Considering the background, one can still tell that the men are in some type of big city. There are lots of tall buildings and skyscrapers, so one might think that this photo was taken in New York City. The beam is very high up in the sky considering that you can see the tops of the buildings underneath. The photographer positioned the photo so that you can see more of the city underneath the men than you can see above them. Trying to show the huge city underneath them and just how high up the beam actually is. The background of the photo stretches so far that it makes it seem like its showing just how small the eleven men are in comparison to the city itself.  This was probably taken during the time when New York City was booming and developing. 

One of the next things I noticed about the picture is all eleven of the men are holding what looks like a white cardboard box. Assuming that this is their lunch break and they are eating lunch on the beam. The man sitting on the very right side is holding some type of glass bottle, which doesn’t look like it is water. The men are all smiling and appear to be having conversations with each other. So assuming that this photo was taken during their lunch break, this picture was probably taken mid-day. The fact that the eleven men are sitting with what appears to be no worries eating lunch together shows that times back then were good, and they are content. 

Some of the last things that I noticed were the safety of the workers. One of the men does not even have a shirt on. All eleven of the men appear to be wearing “everyday” shoes. One would think they would need construction boots or something considering they are sitting on a beam hundreds of feet in the air, and some sort of traction would most likely be needed. Also, none of them are wearing hardhats; they are wearing what appears to be “everyday” hats as well. They are wearing ordinary clothes, some dressed more than others. Four of the eleven men are wearing overalls, which I could see being considered as a work uniform. One man is only wearing a wife beater tank top, a few of the men have on gloves, but not all of them. All of these points lead to the conclusion of this photo been taken long ago considering they have no safety gear. None of the men are even attached to any type of rope or levy to save their lives if one was to fall off. Two of the eleven men are smoking cigarettes, which also leads back to this being an older picture considering you are not allowed to smoke on the job site, or on a beam hundreds of feet in the air for that matter. After all of these conclusions it came to mind that these men could actually be just everyday men and not construction workers. Granted I do not know what the required gear for construction workers were for back in the day but in reality another way to look as this picture is that the eleven men could just be random men who are posing for a picture. Reasons to lead me to this conclusion is the fact that I stated before that they are all wearing ordinary clothes. Regardless if they are the real construction workers or just men off the street, the picture portrays eleven men who are sitting on a beam hundreds off feet in the air but seem so content and calm in their situation. 