Trump Tower Crane Photography by Ken Derry

I happened to be flipping channels last night when I came across a story on Chicago Tonight about Ken Derry, a local tower crane operator & amateur photographer.  Ken spent 36 months working the tower crane for the construction of the Trump Tower and captured some truly unique images on the way up.  The whole set (over 500 photos) can be viewed at his smugmug account.  Here are two of my favorites:





He has quite a few photos like the second one, looking down at the city engulfed in clouds.  The Trump Tower rises over 1300 feet (including its spire), and is the second tallest building in Chicago after the Sears Tower.

Ken also took photos of the construction crew working on the tower, such as this one, which reminds me a little of Lewis Hine's photographs of the Empire State Building under construction in the 1930s.  Now, I don't want to push that comparison too far-- the Trump Tower is no Empire State Building.  Nonetheless, it's now part of the Chicago skyline and is going to be here for a very long time.  So will these photographs documenting its rise.

In the Chicago Tonight interview, Ken said that he plans to put out a coffee table book in the future.  In the meantime, please visit his smugmug site and buy one of these photographs if you like what you see here.