Glass In Front - Window Cleaning Photos

See all the pictures at the link below.

Glass in Front, Clouds Below: If the first picture doesn’t make your heart skip a beat, you are either beyond fearless, a professional window washer or both. And if it doesn’t make your heart ache a bit, you may not remember that Roko Camaj (top photo), an Albanian immigrant who adored his job washing windows at the World Trade Center — so infectiously that he became the subject of a children’s book — was killed on Sept. 11, 2001. No one could have anticipated peril of that magnitude. But window washing in a city of skyscrapers is an inherently dramatic subject. Very few other laborers report to work at such tenuous precipices. They clear panoramas for the rest of us by putting their lives and limbs on the line.

Who could blame Edward Massey for looking as nervous as he did in the November 1972 photo by Robert Walker? (Mr. Massey is in the newsboy cap in Slide 6, drawing on a cigarette - go to link). A steel cable holding the scaffold on which he and his partner were standing had snapped 53 stories over Times Square, at 1 Astor Plaza. One end of it, unattached and swinging crazily, smashed through a window on the 52nd floor, opening an escape route through which the two — unhurt — were able to clamber into the office building.

Mr. Walker’s photo has everything: the anxious window washer, the hard-working recovery crew, the terrifyingly askew scaffold and a sense, in the distance, of just how high up this scene is set. We can even see a pair of suction lifters in the center foreground. As inherently photogenic as the subject of window washing might be, ingenuity and timing are still required to take a good picture — as is the ability to recognize that the best vantage may not yield the best image.

Sara Krulwich was assigned in August 1994 to photograph Mr. Camaj at 2 World Trade Center. “I joined him on the outside of the building,” she recalled. “The experience of putting on a safety belt and stepping into a little bucket attached to the outside of a World Trade tower was one I will always remember. It was one of those amazing New York experiences that make this job so great.” Back on earth, and looking at the contact sheets, Ms. Krulwich and her editors realized that the pictures taken alongside Mr. Camaj weren’t as successful in showing the panoramic context of his job as those taken from inside the building.

Luck can play a role. For instance, Marilynn K. Yee didn’t set out in January 2006 to create an Abstract Expressionist portrait of the window washer Ricardo Espejo in a cameo role as George Washington (Slide 8 - at link). Her assignment was simply to shoot a new store on Broome Street called Despaña. Mr. Espejo just happened to show up for work. “I thought it was a strong image,” Ms. Yee said, “and was able to capture the soapy suds and the patterns of movements and shadows as he worked.”

Persistence, too, is a factor. In August 2006, Fred R. Conrad climbed a 12-foot ladder on the rooftop of 7 World Trade Center in order to clear the edge of the parapet and shoot straight down as Paul Aspuru and Oleh Hulyas washed windows overlooking ground zero. The photo (Slide 8 - at link) was never published. Mr. Conrad is undaunted, since the trade center site in the background looks so very different today. “I want now more than ever to rephotograph the window washers, so that there will be a record five years apart,” he said last week. “I think it could be stunning.” For those who remember Mr. Camaj up at these altitudes, however, the scene will seem a bit empty.

See the pictures in full screen here.

3 Window Cleaning Stories for Saturday

Schoolgirl Holly hailed a lifesaver: Schoolgirl Holly Clayton has been hailed a heroine after she saved the life of a seriously ill window cleaner. The nine-year-old calmly raised the alarm when she spotted family friend Mark Hobson, 45, slumped in his van in a pub car park. Paramedics were called to bring diabetic Mark round from what he described as the worst "hypo" attack he had suffered in 20 years. Insulin-dependant Mark, who needs four injections every day, said: "She's my heroine. "I'm 45 years old and I've done quite a few things in my time, but I've never saved anyone's life. She's done it at nine-years-old. It was all thanks to Holly – she saved the day."
Hoole St Michael's pupil Holly was walking from her home in Anchor Drive, Hutton, near Preston, to the local shop when she noticed Mark parked in his van outside the Anchor pub. She thought he looked unwell and when saw he was still there on her way home she ran home to tell her father, James. Her next stop was the home Mark shares with his parents in The Dellway and they all went to the car park to try to bring him round. But with the condition being worse than usual, an ambulance was called. Thankfully, Mark regained full consciousness and did not need hospital treatment. Mark, who had not eaten breakfast that morning, said: "My blood sugars must have dropped and I went into hypoglycaemia. You can actually die from it if you're not treated. "Normally I can feel when my blood sugars have dropped so I deal with it myself but, on that day, I didn't feel it coming on, it just hit me all at once."
Holly, who was born on Christmas morning and has an elder brother James, 15, said: "I was going to the shop and I saw him in his van and didn't see him in a nice way so I ran back home and told my dad. "It's funny because I was actually going to buy me and my dad a bottle of Lucozade each and Mark needs stuff like that to help him." And Holly plans to carry on helping others – but animals rather than humans, as she wants to be a vet when she grows up.
Grateful Mark, who had just stopped for a cup of coffee, gave Holly some money and a box of Heroes chocolates to say thank you. He also wrote to Holly's school to thank her for her brave efforts and she has been given a special headteacher's award for her vigilance. Headteacher Kathryn Melling said: "Holly is a lovely, happy child who is always so caring of others. "We are so proud of her to be so quick-thinking and courageous." Holly's coal merchant dad James, 53, said: "If he had been left and nobody found him, he could have died because it was one of the worst attacks he'd had. " For a girl of nine, it was great presence of mind."

Remembering 9/11: Fabian Soto, 29, was a window cleaner at the World Trade Center. A native of Ecuador, Fabian believed in living for the moment. His wife, Elda says Fabian believed he would die young. Nevertheless, Fabian obviously kept his eye on the future; he worked extra hours to bring his wife to the United States, and was saving to bring his son, who remains in the care of grandparents in Ecuador. When the Trade Center was attacked, Fabian was washing the windows of the observation deck.

Roko Camaj, 60, was a hero when the World Trade Center was first attacked--in 1993. When a bomb sent smoke pluming throughout the towers on that occasion, Roko covered his mouth with a sponge so he could breathe, then helped a woman trapped in a stairwell to safety. A window cleaner, Roko loved his work--delighted in hanging at breathless heights over New York City. He was once featured in a series of children's books on dangerous occupations titled "Risky Business."

Ledua slings for a living: Once condemned by society as a criminal, Ledua Cagilevu has picked up the pieces of his past and used it to generate a better way to survive. He admits the work he does is risky, but it's something he's adjusted himself to so he can survive and support his young family. Unlike any other ordinary jobs, Mr Cagilevu spends the whole day mostly suspended on ropes from the exterior of high-rise buildings around the capital city. He specialises in maintenance work that includes welding, cleaning, painting and carpentry on the outside of Suva city's buildings. Mr Cagilevu said he met another former inmate and started a company know as Specialist Access Service design to do work in those hard to reach places on high rise buildings.
"I've been doing this job for the past ten years with help from my colleague and boss Amasai Koroi, he had special training overseas and returned to start a company in Fiji," he said. "This job changed my life around from crime." Mr Cagilevu supports his wife and three children - two of whom attend primary and secondary schools in Suva.
The Fiji Times met Mr Cagilevu and his crew working at the Pacific House's nine-storey building in Suva, suspended from ropes fastened to safety straps. Two men suspended on the exterior of the building began washing from top to bottom. Each worker equipped with window washes, a hose pipe and long wooden-handle scrubbing brushes -- swinging from side to side as pedestrian awe from below. "We conducted similar work at Fiji's tallest building, the Reserve Bank, other high-rise buildings like Tanoa Plaza and Suvavou House. "We hardly travel out of Suva unless otherwise because all the high-rise buildings are here," he said. "This is a good job and it pays well. On my first day I was a bit shaky, but now I not afraid of heights anymore. I've become used to it," he said.