# Does anyone believe this photo is genuine? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 30, 2015, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-believe-this-photo-is-genuine/716351 "2015-03-30T17:29:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-believe-this-photo-is-genuine/716351/41 "2015-03-31T15:13:46Z")
> [@pool](#): > > You know I never thought about it but if they had added just a few more guys they could of had a whole “The Last Supper” thing going on, would have been cool. I doubt they’d do that. Many people of that era had superstitions about thirteen people eating together. It portends a death. My grandmother, for example; she’d walk away from the table if there’d be exactly thirteen sitting at any moment. Of course, she was a Midwestern Christian. I don’t know the what the traditions of these guys would be, but if I had to make a guess, I think they’d be more superstitious, rather than less. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-believe-this-photo-is-genuine/716351/42 "2015-03-31T15:14:47Z")
[quote=“BobLibDem, post:38, topic:716351”] Every time I watch this I nearly faint. . . . " QUOTE] No shit. It’s amazing how one can get the sensation of vertigo sitting safely at a desk and viewing it on an average computer monitor. I had to turn it off before it was even finished. Re the OP, I have always loved this photo and bought a large print of it for my bf (he’s in construction, though not like that!). It never occurred to me that it was staged or that there is some kind of photo trickery going on. I distinctly remember footage of the ESB being built and it showed any number of scenes with men on beams like in the picture. Was that manipulated also? Kind of disappointing but I still find the image stunning. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-believe-this-photo-is-genuine/716351/43 "2015-03-31T15:56:09Z")
> [@kopek](#): > > The Cherokees I knew who worked high iron always claimed the photo was staged and retouched. Them I trust and always believed. Even after reading how it was created? Sounds like professional jealousy - “we’re tougher than those pussies, they had a floor.” I mean, they were all real high steel workers, and really high up. How does having them sit on a beam in a posed photo diminish that? ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-believe-this-photo-is-genuine/716351/44 "2015-03-31T16:57:31Z")
> [@kopek](#): > > The Cherokees I knew who worked high iron always claimed the photo was staged and retouched. Them I trust and always believed. The version of the photo Valteron posted is obviously retouched to make the girder smaller. But this version [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/13/Lunch-atop-a-skyscraper-c1932.jpg](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/13/Lunch-atop-a-skyscraper-c1932.jpg) is not retouched. If you just cropped the bottom a little to remove the planks beneath it would look a lot more bad-ass. There’s a floor ten feet below them. But if you fell off the beam you might not hit that floor, depending on how you fell. Yeah, don’t fall off. It is staged, because how else could it be? The guys who worked those jobs didn’t all sit on beams like that regularly to have lunch, and a passing photographer happened upon them and decided to take a snapshot. It’s a posed picture. But those guys really are construction workers who really are sitting on a beam hundreds of feet in the air. Those guys really did walk out on that beam, sit down, and pretend to have lunch. It is a genuine photo of something that really happened, even though the reason it happened is so that there could be a photo of it. That’s like arguing that the moon landings were staged, because they made sure to take plenty of pictures of Neil Armstrong bouncing around. Yes, he posed for those pictures on the moon, and the pictures were the point of the trip. But it’s confusing to say the photo was “staged”, since another meaning of “staged” would mean it happened in front of a painted backdrop or something. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-believe-this-photo-is-genuine/716351/45 "2015-03-31T17:08:12Z")
Is this one real? [Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (Official Music Video) - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ) Snicker, snicker. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-believe-this-photo-is-genuine/716351/46 "2015-03-31T18:00:10Z")
> [@fisha](#): > > Note the air quality in all the pictures, and also the formality of dress. Hate to be jumping around on those beams with a suit on. There’s a theater in Madrid called Circo Price, which used to be a circus. There are pictures of some of their first performers. Acrobats and tightorpe walkers in formal clothing :eek: I had read that Pinito del Oro’s clothing (basically what we’re used to seeing on trapeze ladies) had caused an enormous scandal, but until I saw her picture side by side with all those dudes in tails I hadn’t understood why! ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-believe-this-photo-is-genuine/716351/47 "2015-03-31T18:25:44Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > Is this one real? [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ) > Snicker, snicker. I may be the last (hell, maybe even the first) person who still gets a kick out of that. Makes me grin every time, I tells ya. ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-believe-this-photo-is-genuine/716351/48 "2015-03-31T18:30:10Z")
And we wonder why we have OSHA now. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-believe-this-photo-is-genuine/716351/49 "2015-03-31T18:44:35Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > Is this one real? [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ) > Snicker, snicker. YouTube ads have ruined it forever. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-believe-this-photo-is-genuine/716351/50 "2015-03-31T23:33:26Z")
We had bigger nuts back them. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-believe-this-photo-is-genuine/716351/51 "2015-03-31T23:46:38Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > People do all sorts of risky seeming stunts involving heights all the time. [Here’s a kid dangling off a bridge with one hand](http://i.imgur.com/Ner9tSy.jpg) & [here’s another kid doing it on video](https://youtu.be/RXaSDVZiedw?t=2316), definitely no photoshop. [Here’s a kid doing it on a radio tower](http://i.imgur.com/1gy3YcD.webm) & [here’s a lady dangling in an evening gown](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCHGcAQgjMY). > > Compared to these, sitting on a girder is pretty trivial. I started becomming physicaly sick just watching these! ---
**Author:** ![Lee\_Q](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/aeb1de/32.png) [@Lee\_Q](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lee_Q)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-believe-this-photo-is-genuine/716351/52 "2015-04-01T22:19:48Z")
[![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5W62Gg0crbE) There are so many videos of kids doing ‘height stunts.’ For some reason there seem to be a disproportionate number of them out of Russia. Or check out some of this guy’s photographs. No photoshop! [https://500px.com/alexander\_remnev](https://500px.com/alexander_remnev) ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-believe-this-photo-is-genuine/716351/53 "2015-04-01T23:07:39Z")
Even when it’s just a still photo of a height stunt, it feels like my balls try to climb back inside my body. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2015, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-believe-this-photo-is-genuine/716351/54 "2015-04-02T15:47:03Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > I started becomming physicaly sick just watching these! Tell me about it! WTF is wrong with these people? I would kill my son if he pulled a, er, stunt like that. At the same time, I do enjoy those “flying squirrel” type [videos](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWfph3iNC-k), and don’t feel horrified by them in anything like the same way. Which probably doesn’t make sense actuarially speaking… ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2015, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-believe-this-photo-is-genuine/716351/55 "2015-04-02T17:42:06Z")
Why oh why do I click on these links? I’ll _never_ get my sphincter unclenched. Regards, Shodan, who gets squeamish when somebody tells a tall story [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-believe-this-photo-is-genuine/716351.md?page=2)