I will grant you that I could easily be referring to the Black Friday Shop-a-Thon that everyone seems more than willing to "buy" into,but that is not the particular sickness on my mind today.
Most people in the US have seen some of the classic photos taken during the depression,or even the one of the sailor kissing the nurse on VJ day. The photo I want to draw your attention to today is "Lunch Atop a Skyscraper". I would like to believe it was an innocent photo depicting the extremes immigrants and others desperate to make a wage,were willing to brave but as it turns out it was actually a staged photo,a publicity shot for Rockefeller Center. The photo was taken 9/20/1932 during the construction of Rockefeller Center depicts 11 immigrant laborers 850 feet above Midtown. It is included in a collection of posed photos for promoting Depression-era real estate. What does it say about society when utter recklessness for the sake of financial promotion becomes an icon? But in all fairness I will acknowledge that it can also be seen as the pure determination and will to survive that brought people through those terrible times.
Most people in the US have seen some of the classic photos taken during the depression,or even the one of the sailor kissing the nurse on VJ day. The photo I want to draw your attention to today is "Lunch Atop a Skyscraper". I would like to believe it was an innocent photo depicting the extremes immigrants and others desperate to make a wage,were willing to brave but as it turns out it was actually a staged photo,a publicity shot for Rockefeller Center. The photo was taken 9/20/1932 during the construction of Rockefeller Center depicts 11 immigrant laborers 850 feet above Midtown. It is included in a collection of posed photos for promoting Depression-era real estate. What does it say about society when utter recklessness for the sake of financial promotion becomes an icon? But in all fairness I will acknowledge that it can also be seen as the pure determination and will to survive that brought people through those terrible times.
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