Bridge painters pose on the suspended wires on the Brooklyn Bridge, October 7, 1914

Photo by Eugene de Salignac

de Salignac worked for the New York City Department of Bridges/Plant and Structures. He documented New York City construction from 1906 to 1934. de Salignac died in 1943, virtually unknown.

His images were rediscovered in the 1980s, but it was not until 1999 that an archivist realized the collection was mostly the work of one man. In 2007, Aperture published New York Rises, the first monograph of his work, which became a traveling exhibition that opened at the Museum of the City of New York.

Since then, his photographs have been widely reproduced and are part of a growing interest in industrial photography that has been left out of the traditional photography canon.