As indicated by the notations on its verso, one of the subjects of this photograph is Victor Gosselin, known as Frenchy for the fact that he was raised in Montreal. Gosselin was one of the construction crew laboring hundreds of feet above the Manhattan streets during the construction of the Empire State Building. Seen here on the left, Gosselin is characteristically shirtless and wearing shorts as he works with a colleague to fit a steel beam into place. Lewis Hine referred to these construction workers as ‘sky boys’ and marveled at their fearlessness as they walked along narrow beams, defying death every working day. Gosselin’s specialty was as a ‘connector’ who caught a suspended beam and moved it in to place to be attached to the building’s steel frame, as he is doing in this photograph.
In a 1930 interview, Gosselin balanced the risks and freedoms of his job: ‘Everybody seems to think you have to be a superman or something to work on steel. Of course, it ain't no picnic, but then there's lots of jobs I'd pass up for this. I wouldn't want to be no taxi driver, for instance. Look at them down there, dodging in and out of that traffic all day long. A guy's apt to get killed that way.’
