Galway-based Éamonn Ó Cualáin has completed a short film for the #Time100Photos project, focusing on the iconic NYC photograph 'Lunch Atop a Skyscraper'.
Time endeavoured to bring together a collection of the one hundred most influential photographs ever taken, which involved thousands of interviews with editors, historians, photographers and reporters.
Ó Cualáin has crafted one of twenty short documentaries available online exploring the stories behind these iconic images. His previous work includes his role as the producer on the documentary from Sean Ó Cualáin, ‘Men at Lunch.’ This project received the IFTA for Best Special Irish Language in 2013 and worked toward unveiling the true story behind the iconic image.
Although the exact identity of the photographer is unknown, Charles C. Ebbets, Thomas Kelley and William Leftwich were present on the day in 1932. The photograph portrays construction workers who helped build Rockefeller Center, although the photograph itself was staged as part of a promotional campaign for the complex.
Editing was completed by Conall de Cléir whose credits include the award-winning ‘Am an Ghátair’ (Paddy Hayes) and ‘The Field: Crá sa Chré’ which currently airs to TG4.
Ó Cualáin’s project is accompanied online by a quote from Rockefeller Center Historian Christine Roussel, which states, “If you see this picture once, you never forget it.”
From the collection as a whole, the earliest dates circa 1826 entitled ‘View from the Window at Le Gras’ from inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, with others such as Margaret Bourke-White’s ‘Gandhi and the Spinning Wheel’ dating 1946, and more contemporary images such as Bradley Cooper’s 2014 ‘Oscars Selfie.’
Collection Curators, Time:
“There is no formula that makes a picture influential. Some images are on our list because they were the first of their kind, others because they shaped the way we think. And some made the cut because they directly changed the way we live. What all 100 share is that they are turning points in our human experience.”
View the interactive timeline of #Time100Photos
Learn More about 'Lunch atop a Skyscraper'
