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New York, Damon Winter
Ironworkers of the sky
Bolter Kevin "Woogie" Sabbagh navigates a beam after bolting it to the far column © Damon Winter/ The New York Times
Peter Jacobs, north gang signalman talks with the crane operator and carefully and precisely guides in cargo into a narrow space on the derrick floor © Damon Winter/ The New York Times
Tim Conboy works to fix the newly raised cocoon to the perimeter collums on what will eventually be the 74th floor © Damon Winter/ The New York Times
Workers behind the cocoon on the 71st floor with a view looking toward the Brooklyn Bridge © Damon Winter/ The New York Times
Jim Brady is the kind of ironworker whose value is immeasurable on a site like the WTC Liberty Tower. He does his own work and before his partner even has time to begin his, he will run across two beams to come and help him. He does his work with pride and also with humility, never needing to be told what to do or how to do it © Damon Winter/ The New York Times
Tommy Hickey guides in equipment from the crane operator above © Damon Winter/ The New York Times
An ironworker apprentice takes in the view from the latice of steel beams that will become the 74th floor © Damon Winter/ The New York Times
Jim Brady is the kind of guy that whose value is immeasurable on a job like this. He does his own work and before his partner even has time to begin his, he has run across two beams to come and help him. He does his work with humility and pride, never needing to be told what to do or how to do it. Here he helps his partner align the bold holes on an incoming beam as they attempt to set it into place © Damon Winter/ The New York Times
Connectors set the beams into place, positioning them by hand as they are lowed down into place by giant cranes that tower above the derrick floor and setting them into place with a single bolt on either side. Here, Jim Brady (left) waits paitently for his partner to connect his side after completing his own © Damon Winter/ The New York Times
Turhan Clause, one of the many Mowhawk and Algonquin Indian ironworkers on the site. Turhan commutes every weekend back to his home in Canada © Damon Winter/ The New York Times
Bolter Kevin "Woogie" Sabbagh navigates a beam after bolting it to the far column © Damon Winter/ The New York Times
It only took Damon Winter five days of work to equal Lewis Hine or Charles Ebbets. On the worksite of the new World Trade Center, the New York Times photographer covered the Ironworkers, those builders of American skyscrapers who are as much today as yesterday the city’s glory.
A poem. The word is just barely too strong. These photographs are linked together with rhymes. And yet every one of them is an icon, and, as with poetry, almost dissociable from the others, and this despite the fact that their primary purpose—to inform—is unaltered. The viewer always knows where he is, high up there 300 meters above the ground, with the workers who for more than a century have been building the canopies of New York.
Damon Winter has a great talent—that of transforming reportage into art. Confronted to Manhattan and its impregnable view, at an altitude where any photo can seem impressive, most would be tempted to snap away at the panorama with a wide angle lens and to incorporate within it a few scenes of people. But this photographer isn’t content just to photograph the view. He scrutinizes, zooms, composes, cuts off bodies, revolutionizes the framing, and it comes about practically naturally that the skyline then appears in the background. “I have always been very focused on what is happening in front of me,” he explains. “Generally speaking, I’m looking for the element of surprise. I notice the symbolism only afterwards, at publication.”
Even if he had in mind “those marvelous photos of the building of the Empire State Building during the 20s”, Damon Winter was intimidated when he arrived on the site last July. The workers were putting up the 73rd and 74th floors of the future “Freedom Tower.” It had taken months of negotiation to be allowed access. One doesn’t just enter like that among the Ironworkers—they have their own world. “The Port Authority officials were always watching me, I was not to bother the workers at their job, not to talk to them or have them pose. But as they weren’t paying any attention to me, I was able to stay in the background in order to capture good moments.”
Like many reporters, Damon Winter likes close contact. In all areas—from the hotel room of stars to the ruins of Port-au-Prince—he takes the time to establish relationships with the people he photographs. Sensitivity and gentleness: these are the constant qualities of this photographer and his photos “Finally, the workers came to see me. I spent time drinking beer and talking with them at the end of the day.”
Work conditions have changed considerably since the time of Charles Ebbets and his workers seated on a metal beam. Damon Winter had to accept certain conditions: a harness, a helmet, glasses and solid boots. However, even using digital, black and white is de rigueur. “It’s a reference to classical images but also to light conditions. This brilliant sun is very difficult to handle in color. In contrast, black and white enables one to overcome that problem and to provide a graphic effect.”
Jonas Cuénin
Note: This work was published the weekend of September 4 in the New York Times magazine on the occasion of the September 11, 2011.
Links
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/magazine/ironworkers-of-the-sky.html
http://www.damonwinter.com/
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