Derrick Worker on the Empire State Building

It can be easy to forget that the enduring structures that symbolize America–both physical and societal–did not come into existence without the tremendous effort of skillful, dedicated risk-takers. Documentary photographer Lewis Wickes Hine made it his life’s work to chronicle and thusly partake in the crucial and often death-defying efforts men and women made to reach these ends. In Derrick Worker on the Empire State Building, a gelatin silver print from 1930, Hine recorded the routine yet dare-devilish climb of a laborer to the apex of an acutely angled derrick arm in the company of several other towers of similarly extended steel. Like the rest of Hine’s work, however, the piece goes far beyond mere documentation into a multi-layered arena of narrative cultural examination, stunning compositional framing, and an affecting elicitation of empathy from the viewer. 
 
It’s nearly impossible to look at Hine’s image without drawing in a quick breath and noticing that your palms are suddenly sweaty. The worker, on all fours and in stark silhouette against a cloudy gray sky, looks almost more animal than human upon first glance–in part because one doesn’t want to think a person’s job would entail them climbing hundreds of feet above the ground without any protective measures in place. It’s exactly these kinds of dangerous working conditions that Hine went to great lengths to photograph, often at his own significant peril.