By MIKE SIMONS Staff Photographer on Jul 29, 2013, at 2:40 PM Updated on 7/29 at 2:40 PM
HOW Foundation residents Brent White, Donny Reynolds, Justin Payne and Chad Baker take a lunch break as they work to clean up storm debris near E. 109th Street and South Louisville Ave. July 29, 2013. MIKE SIMONS/Tulsa World
As I drove around South Tulsa looking for City of Tulsa crews picking up storm debris; I saw a group of HOW Foundation residents sitting under a tree eating lunch. They had been clearing storm debris. At first I drove right on by, thinking that I was there either too early or too late to make a photo of them. But, as I drove by I thought about some of the historic photos of workers taking a lunch break. I was going to link to the photos, but I am sure you can picture them. Workers sharing a lunch suspended high above the city balancing on an I-beam.
We don't photograph these moments very often anymore. One reason I often pass them up is it seems people are very quick to criticize worker inactivity. It may be perceived as laziness. I can assure you after a short conversation with these workers that they are far from lazy. They tell me that they work 10 hour shifts 6 days a week.
I converted the image to black and white and it reminds me even more of the old photos that inspired me to stop.
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