Yesterday, my dad very thoughtfully sent me an e-card for my birthday from MoMa featuring the above photo. According to the card, the image was captured in 1905 by a pair of maverick shutterbugs named Underwood and Underwood. Titled, "Above Fifth Avenue, Looking North," this gelatin silver print captures a construction surveyor of some kind blithely thwarting death as he casually goes about his work.
Then, I thought, hang on a minute, he's not looking north! That's clearly the rear of the Flatiron Building just down the road, which would mean our boy is obviously looking west!
I was all ready to fire off a snotty, incredulous note to the MoMa and the Underwood estate and flex my insufferable knowitall chops. And then, I realized, the title of the print refers to the perspective of the photographer and not of the subject.
So, yeah, I'm a bozo. But still .... cool shot, right?
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