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LEWIS W. HINE (1874-1940)
Construction worker standing on an I-beam pulling a rope, Empire State Building.
Silver print, 7
1
/
2
x6
1
/
2
inches (19.1x16.5 cm.), with a partial Hine
Interpretive Photography hand stamp on verso. Circa 1931
[20,000/25,000]
An extraordinary bird’s-eye-view of Manhattan from the 102-story high
Empire State Building,“the eighth wonder of the world.”
At the mature age of 56, Lewis Wickes Hine was hired by his neighbor,
Richard Shreve, a partner in the architectural firm of Shreve, Lamb and
Harmon, who designed the Empire State Building, to photograph its
construction. The public’s initial response to the project, which was
initiated by Governor Alfred E. Smith during the Great Depression, was
to deem it a folly. Nonetheless, construction began on St. Patrick’s Day
(1930) and was completed a mere 13 months later. The building was
officially opened on May 1, 1931 in a dramatic fashion, when President
Hoover turned on the building’s lights from Washington, DC, with the
push of a button.
Hine’s pictures, which were shot from high beams at elevations high
above the city, merge his interest in a Work Portrait methodology
(focusing on Mohawk Indian iron workers and other laborers perched
on I-beams) and modernist abstraction. He pictures the building as a
towering structure, a symbol of NewYork’s bold ambition and modernity.