Invisible Cities
This course was influential partially because it was not at all what I expected. To consider marginalized urban populations as an entire city, invisible to the rest of the world, is a idea I was not familiar with. However, throughout the course, I found the way that these underrepresented populations express themselves through art and literature, to be most intriguing. My favorite exploration in this course was the concept of using street art as the voice of marginalized communities in a given city. A couple years after taking this course, I studied abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and was able to see an example of this first hand. Buenos Aires is known for it's street art, especially in a neighborhood called La Boca, which has historically been the region of the city with lesser resources. Because of the areas highly marginalized communities, this neighborhood is the birthplace of much creativity including street art, as well as the tango.
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Final Paper: Lewis Hine, Empire State Building Series, 1930-31
The artifact I chose to examine was Lewis Hine’s photography series documenting the construction of the Empire State Building. I chose this subject because I have an interest in photography, and when I first looked at the photos I was amazed by the incredible acts that we’re depicted, as well as the way in which Hine chose to capture them. In the present, many of the physical acts of the construction workers would be considered extremely dangerous, if not absolutely crazy. I found this intriguing. When I began my research, I expected much of the commentary on the photos to be predominantly negative and related to these dangerous working conditions. However, I was pleasantly surprised to learn more about the men shown in the photos, who exuded pride for their work. In this paper, I plan on going into depth on the context under which the Empire State Building was built, and consider what this meant for those constructing it both during and after construction. Of all the ways that a society can be divided, I find division by height of the spaces we occupy to be the most interesting. Because you often need a specific position or set of resources to occupy places that are further removed from the ground, those that have these resources to literally move upward, are leaving much of the population behind at ground level.
The Empire State Building began its construction in March of 1930 and was completed in April of 1931. It is said to have been inspired through the competition between Walter Chrysler, of the Chrysler corporation, and John Jakob Raskob, of General Motors. Both men were competing to see who could construct the tallest building. Raskob was the obvious winner of this competition when the Empire State Building was completed at a height of 1,454 feet, compared to the 1,046 feet of the Chrysler building. One of the challenges that publicists for the Empire State Building had at the time was how it would be viewed by the citizens of New York City. During its construction, the nation was in the beginnings of the Great Depression, and there was a large amount of hostility directed towards capitalism and any of the representations of elite wealth. This is one of the reasons that Lewis Hine was hired to document the construction of the skyscraper. They wanted to paint the Empire State Building as a symbol of hope and optimism rather than of capitalism and economic division.
Lewis Hine grew up in Wisconsin in the late 19th century. After graduating from the University of Chicago in 1901, he went on to teach in New York at the Ethical Cultural School. Shortly after beginning there, he was introduced to the idea of using photography as a medium to convey ethical principles to his students. In the beginning of his career as a photographer, Hine focused on documenting the lives and transitions of new immigrants to the U.S. From this background, he developed an interest in using photography to analyze the living and working environments of the American industrial working class. Many of his photographs have a documentary nature that illustrates the growth of a socially conscious society. Some of his most influential pictures were taken working for the National Child Labor Committee and the American Red Cross in Europe following World War II. In 1930, Hine was asked by Belle Moskowitz, the publicist for the Empire State Building, to document the construction of the tower in its entirety. Originally, Hine was hesitant to take on the role. However, he was in desperate need for money, so he ended up taking the position.
In his photographs of the Empire State Building, Hine abandoned a theme of social reform that had long been included in his work. Instead of emphasizing the long days, rigorous schedule, or all too real dangers that the workers were exposed to daily during the construction of the building. He captured images that romanticized the construction as well as the men who built the legendary building. The narrative that Hine’s photographs focus on is one of the incredible bravery, craftsmanship, and teamwork that it took to create such as architectural symbol, rather than the technological innovation or capitalistic wallets that inspired it. Through his photos, Hine tells a story of a melting pot of men, coming together for a brief window, to create an architectural monument unlike any other from the time, one that remains an iconic symbol on the New York City skyline. Part of Hine’s focus could have been inspired by the fact that the publicists for the Empire State Building wanted it to appear as more of a symbol of hope, growth and economic recovery rather than the symbol of capitalism it could likely have been interpreted as. Because it was built during the Great Depression, it was likely that the Empire State Building would be criticized for its extravagance and association with capitalism. However, those in charge of its public relations worked to explain the Empire State Building as a collective effort, built by an army of dedicated and skilled craftsmen and laborers. It was a tribute to collective success and inspiration rather than a symbol of elitism and separation. In the article The Empire State Building, Working-Class Masculinity and King Kong, Merrill Schleier refers to Hine’s photographs as “visual propaganda.” The construction of the Empire State Building could be seen as a symbol of renewal and revival by a nation that so desperately needed a sign of hope in the midst of the economic calamity of the Great Depression.
In his photos, Hine focused largely on the men that were responsible for raising the steel frame of the building, level by level. He referred to these men as “sky boys” due to the precarious nature of their job. These men led the way for the building to grow to unmatched heights by balancing on thin beams, and connecting and lifting the steel frame for the building, hundreds of feet up in the air. In six months, these workers were able to raise 57,000 tons of steel, and completed the frame for the entire structure. Fascinated by their work, Hine documented these men as well as their physical and technological accomplishments. His photos emphasize the incredible human feats that contributed to the Empire State Building rather than the building itself. As Jim Rasenberger say’s in the New York Times article The ‘Sky Boys’; “Hine gave the men a degree of honor and immortality that is rarely bestowed on blue-collar workers. They, in turn, lent his photographs their exhilarating pride and grace, and inspired some of the greatest work of his life.”
One of the most famous photographs from the series is entitled Icarus. The photo depicts a man, suspended precariously in the air, high above New York City, connecting two cables. The photo is named for the Greek mythological story of Daedalus and Icarus. In the myth, Daedalus and Icarus are imprisoned in the labyrinth. In order to escape, Daedalus creates two pairs of wings out of feathers and wax. Daedalus warned his son Icarus not to fly too close to the sun, but on their escape Icarus forgot the warning and flew too high, melting the wax on his wings. This story suggests a specific interpretation of the photo. Icarus got caught up in a feeling of fearlessness, strength and invincibility, and ultimately, that became his downfall. Hine’s photos depict these ‘sky boys’ in a similar way. They give off a feeling of invincibility, strength and heroism. In the photograph, the worker symbolizes a level of technological innovation comparable to that of the Daedalus. However, the title also suggests that the worker must remain extremely vigilant and careful at all times, or his daring risks for the creation of this technological and engineering monument could become deadly.
Aside from this picture and its evocative title, it is mostly agreed by commentators that Hine’s Empire State Building Photos evoke feelings of optimism. This is likely a reflection of the dire economic circumstances of the nation during the project. In the time of the Great Depression, anything that provided large numbers of jobs and indicated growth and development of any kind was seen in a positive light. On any given day, up to 3,400 people were employed to work on the building’s construction. They were mostly paid very good wages, which must have seemed like a blessing in an era of extremely high unemployment. Along with this, the workers were said to have exuded a sense of pride to be working on a building that was meant to eclipse all others and stand as a monument to the creators so far into the future.
These men were pioneers, and their territory was an area that had only been explored by airplanes. In the article The Empire State Building, Working-Class Masculinity, and King Kong, L.R. Davis is quoted explaining the fascination of a skyscrapers construction: “A skyscraper under construction is one of the most thrilling sights in a modern city…Perhaps you caught sight of the men who worked in and about the naked steel… To begin with, he is a workman with the poise of an acrobat, the skill of a juggler, the strength of a blacksmith, and the team-work of a ball player.” I find this perspective intriguing because I rarely have spent time considering the abilities of the people creating all the new structures around us. In the present day, it feels as though there are countless new buildings going up at all times. In the city of Seattle, no matter where you are standing, it is almost guaranteed that you would be able to see a crane, ready to help the city grow, even a little bit taller. However, in the 1930s, they did not have the same technology, and much of the construction of building relied much more heavily of human strength, daring and craftsmanship. With buildings going up constantly with greater ease and safety using technological advancement, it is easy to lose perspective of the work that went into building the great structures of the past. However, Hine’s photographs remind us that the Empire State Building is truly a building worth appreciating, as are the people that made it.
The fact that this story is told through photographs, lends to the unbelievable and heroic aspects of the photos. Pictures may convey a description worth a thousand words, but they are also capable of illustrating authentic emotion, a perspective and a sense of reality that likely would not have been as clearly communicated through a different medium. The birds-eye view angle of many of the photographs, showing the rest of the city, visually small below, lends to a romanticizing of the workers and their capabilities.
Hine’s photos suggest little of the building context in the larger New York City. The only time you see other parts of the city in his pictures is when he takes a photo from a birds-eye view looking down to include the seemingly small buildings below. The size of the buildings in the images are commentary on their purpose, as the details or personal stories are unimportant in the context of the achievement of constructing the great skyscraper. Those who actually dwell within the city limits are not even alluded to. The marginalized population that the images do involve is that of the photographed workers themselves, and also of Hine. What both Hine and the ‘sky boys’ created became incredibly valuable works of art and a documentary look at human endeavor and industrial progress. Despite being part of one of the most famous building projects of the era, the people that were so largely responsible for its creation mostly ended their lives with little to no money and little personal remembrance for their role.
It is important to consider is what the Empire State Building came to symbolize after its construction came to fruition. The Empire State Building was first a lofty dream conceived by its wealthy patron in an ego driven contest to make a building taller than any other. But during its construction, it was brought to reality by the physical strength, fearlessness, ingenuity and technological innovation of thousands of people. It truly was the symbol of progress and optimism that people wished it to be. However, in November of 1930, when the steel frame for the building had been completed, the “sky boys” returned to their homes and much less romanticized work, or likely no work at all due to the Depression. Six months later, building was completed and the rest of the workers were also out of work. The men that were depicted in Hine’s photos as heroes and romanticized for their accomplishment, were now crippled by the Depression, just as so many other Americans. Does this knowledge, of the lives these workers returned to after construction, change the symbolic significance of the building? I believe that, in a way, it does. It was constructed as something that led people to believe anything is possible, that we could overcome obstacles collectively that had never been solved. However, when the very people whose hands completed an architectural masterpiece returned to extreme poverty in times of the Depression, the building seemed less as a promise of rebuilding the nation. Despite this unmatched accomplishment, the Depression lurched on and the melting pot of workers went their separate ways. In this case, the “invisible city” of people does not seem invisible at all. In fact, they were widely documented by Hine’s photographs yet still remained anonymous and did not receive proper recognition for their work.
In terms of practicality, there was not actually a need for all of this office space that the Empire State Building provided, especially in the context of the economics of the time. Very few people could afford it, and fewer still could justify renting space. A year after its construction, only 25% of the office spaces were rented. The building’s incredible height seems more like a barrier, symbolically dividing the people who were lucky enough to have the resources to purchase space, from the people on the streets below. If the space was not needed why was the 40 million dollar structure commissioned in the first place? The obvious answer to this question is that humans have a fascination with height, and a desire to go beyond what others have done. In my opinion, this fascination comes in part from our inability to remain at great heights. From great heights, we are able to look at the world through a different lens. To many, height symbolizes accomplishment. When you reach the top of a mountain, both literally and figuratively, the view offers not only beauty, but also, an entirely different perspective on the world. However, in the physical world, the buildings that we inhabit and the streets that we walk on are firmly rooted in the ground. Because of this, our ability to reach extreme heights is limited. While it was seen as a symbol of progress at the time, just to see the Empire State Building on the skyline, it was also significantly a symbol of separation, as we’ve discussed in class in many contexts. At a time that so many people felt left behind by the economy, they were also beginning to be left behind by the infrastructure. At one point, everyone lived at ground level, but as people began to develop the means to build upwards, those who did not have the financial ability to inhabit those rising spaces were left behind on the ground. This perspective provides lasting commentary on contemporary society as we live in a city that seems to be rising all around us, leaving some behind while others flourish.
The Empire State Building was truly a collective effort, and that is what Hine’s photos show it to be. Hine’s photos depict it as an incredible technological innovation, and a physical masterpiece and a monument to those who built it. And that is not a false representation. The work of the ‘sky boys’, and all the other people who contributed to its construction, deserves much more than the recognition as a footnote to history that it currently gets. Before seeing Hine’s photographs, or reading about its history, I saw the Empire State Building as simply a symbol of New York City and legacy to wealth. Now, I am able to see that it is a piece of history that was truly made by all those who built it.
Bibliography
Genocchio, Benjamin. “ART REVIEW; Looking Down on the World, From the Heights of Heroes.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 25 Jan. 2004.
“Photographs of the Empire State Building under Construction.” NYPL Digital Collections, NYPL.
Rasenberger, Jim. “The 'Sky Boys'.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 23 Apr. 2006.
SCHLEIER, MERRILL. “The Empire State Building, Working-Class Masculinity, and ‘King Kong.’” Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal, vol. 41, no. 2, 2008, pp. 29–54. JSTOR, JSTOR
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