High over Fargo, a photographer recreates an iconic image

The ironworkers on the Block 9 construction project in Fargo, N.D., inspired a construction company supervisor to recreate history. So the firm hired local photographer Dan Francis to the honors.

"Lunch atop Block 9"I was brought onto this project to recreate the historical Lunch atop a Skyscraper image that was…

Posted by Dan Francis on Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Look familiar?

It’s a recreation of Charles Ebbett’s 1932 picture of ironworkers on the RCA Building project in Manhattan. That picture, too, was a publicity stunt for Rockefeller Center.

“It felt like I was traveling back 87 years and watching history unfold,” Francis tells the Fargo Forum. “I had maybe 10 minutes with them and I used about five minutes to make sure I got the shot. I had a Kilbourne Group member go down and grab that day’s Forum mostly so they had something to do with their hands. When we met with the crew in the offices, one person had a great lunchbox so I told them to bring it up as well which shows up in the middle of the image.”

(h/t: Ann Arbor Miller)