As long as I can work here I will. It's better than housework. Cauliflower packing is hard work but I don't even think about it. My hands go through the motions, my mind's somewhere else. The season lasts six months, then I pack tomatoes and collect unemployment for the rest of the year., from the series "Working"

Skip to main content
Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Museum of Art at Hamilton College, Clinton, NY. Photo by B…
As long as I can work here I will. It's better than housework. Cauliflower packing is hard work but I don't even think about it. My hands go through the motions, my mind's somewhere else. The season lasts six months, then I pack tomatoes and collect unemployment for the rest of the year., from the series "Working"
Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Museum of Art at Hamilton College, Clinton, NY. Photo by Bryan Edwards, Class of 2019. For educational purposes only.
Artist/Maker (American, born 1938)
Date1975 (printed later)
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsSheet: 7 7/8 × 9 7/8 in. (20 × 25.1 cm)
Credit LineGift of Thomas J. Wilson and Jill M. Garling, P2016
Object number2018.12.84
Not on view
Collections

Additional Details

Provenance 2018: Hamilton College (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art), by gift of Thomas J. Wilson and Jill M. Garling.
Markings Stamp: "[copyright symbol] BILL OWENS / EXTRA BOOK PRINT]" on verso at lower right in black ink.
Published References Illustrated in Bill Owens, Working: I Do It For The Money (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1977), pl. 138.
Signature Signed "Bill Owens" on verso at lower right in pencil.
Inscribed "0995M 2000" on verso at upper left in pencil; "W138X" on verso at lower right in pencil.
The man was found lying in the street. He will be sent to a hospital. "I don't smoke, but I carry a pack with me. They're useful in such situations," said the officer, from the series "Police Work"
The man was found lying in the street. He will be sent to a hospital. "I don't smoke, but I carry a pack with me. They're useful in such situations," said the officer, from the series "Police Work"
Leonard Freed
Date: 1976
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Object number: 2015.12.22
The parish priest Ramonet: "I left for the Ile de Sein with a book on Gurdjieff that was supposed to get me back into shape. I barely looked at it. Thanks to Felix Guilcher, a real, lyrical and discreet hero, a rare friend discovered over there, to a Parish Priest, and to all the islanders, more islander than Breton, I soon felt quite at home, something quite unexpected, indeed inconceivable. Happy and calm, I was protected from the distant continent by a superb and pitiless sea. On Sein, I finally told myself "they'll never get me!". I'll never be able to repay my debt to the Sein Islanders for what they gave me
The parish priest Ramonet: "I left for the Ile de Sein with a book on Gurdjieff that was supposed to get me back into shape. I barely looked at it. Thanks to Felix Guilcher, a real, lyrical and discreet hero, a rare friend discovered over there, to a Parish Priest, and to all the islanders, more islander than Breton, I soon felt quite at home, something quite unexpected, indeed inconceivable. Happy and calm, I was protected from the distant continent by a superb and pitiless sea. On Sein, I finally told myself "they'll never get me!". I'll never be able to repay my debt to the Sein Islanders for what they gave me
Jean-Philippe Charbonnier
Date: 1956
Medium: Vintage gelatin silver print
Object number: 2022.15.197
I like working at the shelter workshop. I can be productive and be part of the community. I make money and pay my own way. On my days off I watch TV, ride my bike and write letters to my friends. Someday I'm thinking of getting married.
I like working at the shelter workshop. I can be productive and be part of the community. I make money and pay my own way. On my days off I watch TV, ride my bike and write letters to my friends. Someday I'm thinking of getting married.
Bill Owens
Date: 1975
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Object number: 2023.12.65
Madman in the straw: "a sinister corridor. From behind heavy doors escape the repulsive groans and sickening odors of the mad vomiters doing a cure of disgust (on cheap wine). Behind the last door, a premature madman, naked in the straw. I photographed him through the thick murky glass of his spyhole, licked again and again, without seeing anything (reflex cameras didn't exist at the time). At 2 am, I finally convince the charming head doctor, worn down by my arguments, to let me take the picture in my own way", Psychiatric hospital
Madman in the straw: "a sinister corridor. From behind heavy doors escape the repulsive groans and sickening odors of the mad vomiters doing a cure of disgust (on cheap wine). Behind the last door, a premature madman, naked in the straw. I photographed him through the thick murky glass of his spyhole, licked again and again, without seeing anything (reflex cameras didn't exist at the time). At 2 am, I finally convince the charming head doctor, worn down by my arguments, to let me take the picture in my own way", Psychiatric hospital
Jean-Philippe Charbonnier
Date: 1954
Medium: Vintage gelatin silver print
Object number: 2022.15.198
Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Museum of Art at Hamilton College, Clinton, NY. Photo by B…
The last thing I did before leaving for San Francisco after my dad died was watch fireworks explode over the St. Louis arch on the Fourth of July. Two days later I crested a hill on Route 80 and saw the expanse of San Francisco Bay for the first time. It was so beautiful I cried. St. Louis, Missouri, from the series "Leisure"
Bill Owens
Date: 1976 (printed later)
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Object number: 2018.12.93
Pigeonnet, je suis innonde, et je souscris en ma faveur.....hatons-nous de me porter les premiers secours. (Pigeonnet, I am overwhelmed, and I am subscribing in my favor.....let us speed up to bring me help.)
Pigeonnet, je suis innonde, et je souscris en ma faveur.....hatons-nous de me porter les premiers secours. (Pigeonnet, I am overwhelmed, and I am subscribing in my favor.....let us speed up to bring me help.)
Paul Gavarni
Date: 1855
Medium: Lithograph on paper
Object number: 1988.13
Photo from inside ante-room of Mayor Richard J. Daley's office shows entrance of Congress of Racial Equality demonstrators being barred by police. Garrick Madison (white shirt) 18, spokesman for the group, talks with Col. Jack Reilly (white hair), the mayor's director of special events, who eventually allowed Madison and four other representatives of CORE to enter the suite for an interview with Daley. Daley later told reporters: "They asked for my co-operation with regarding the Board of Education, and I told them it is not my policy to interfere with the Board of Education." Reporters and city hall workers are amidst CORE group outside office, Chicago.
Photo from inside ante-room of Mayor Richard J. Daley's office shows entrance of Congress of Racial Equality demonstrators being barred by police. Garrick Madison (white shirt) 18, spokesman for the group, talks with Col. Jack Reilly (white hair), the mayor's director of special events, who eventually allowed Madison and four other representatives of CORE to enter the suite for an interview with Daley. Daley later told reporters: "They asked for my co-operation with regarding the Board of Education, and I told them it is not my policy to interfere with the Board of Education." Reporters and city hall workers are amidst CORE group outside office, Chicago.
Date: July 22, 1963
Medium: Vintage Associated Press wirephoto
Object number: 2022.15.282
I spent $100 on the plane kit and 50 hours assembling it. My goal is not to crash it in the first ten minutes. Mission Peak, Fremont, California, from the series "Leisure"
I spent $100 on the plane kit and 50 hours assembling it. My goal is not to crash it in the first ten minutes. Mission Peak, Fremont, California, from the series "Leisure"
Bill Owens
Date: 1976 (printed later)
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Object number: 2019.18.72
The Eagle Squares is one of 100 clubs in the Northern California Square Dancing Association. We called our group Eagle Squares because we used to dance in the Eagles Hall. My wife and I started when some neighbors talked us into taking a beginning square dance class. We found dancing to be good clean fun, something we could do together with little expense involved. Livermore, California.
The Eagle Squares is one of 100 clubs in the Northern California Square Dancing Association. We called our group Eagle Squares because we used to dance in the Eagles Hall. My wife and I started when some neighbors talked us into taking a beginning square dance class. We found dancing to be good clean fun, something we could do together with little expense involved. Livermore, California.
Bill Owens
Date: 1974
Medium: Gelatin silver print, printed later
Object number: 2023.12.66
Miss Rita Renoir thinks that striptease gets its effect on the viewer, as it is done with mind and feeling, more than with the body. To demonstrate this theory, Rita Renoir performed for us a "striptease of the face", from the series "Strip-Tease".
Miss Rita Renoir thinks that striptease gets its effect on the viewer, as it is done with mind and feeling, more than with the body. To demonstrate this theory, Rita Renoir performed for us a "striptease of the face", from the series "Strip-Tease".
Frank Horvat
Date: 1955-1959
Medium: Vintage gelatin silver print
Object number: 2022.15.229
© Jeffrey Gibson. Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Museum of Art at Hamilton College, Clint…
I Was Here
Jeffrey Gibson
Date: 2018
Medium: Single-channel video
Object number: 2018.6
In Cambodia today, at the area of Angkor, miles of temples, statues and other works of antiquity are being uncovered from their jungle bed and opened up for tourist and scholarly interest. Some 600 different buildings, most temples of one sort or the other, show a skill in development that matched that of the ancient Egyptians. Canals, waterways and other water projects were but some creations about the greatest works: the temples. Here a tourist studies the Prah Palilay temple, cut loose from its jungle cover in the Royal Palace grounds of Angkor Thom
In Cambodia today, at the area of Angkor, miles of temples, statues and other works of antiquity are being uncovered from their jungle bed and opened up for tourist and scholarly interest. Some 600 different buildings, most temples of one sort or the other, show a skill in development that matched that of the ancient Egyptians. Canals, waterways and other water projects were but some creations about the greatest works: the temples. Here a tourist studies the Prah Palilay temple, cut loose from its jungle cover in the Royal Palace grounds of Angkor Thom
Horst Faas
Date: 1967
Medium: Vintage ferrotyped gelatin silver print
Object number: 2022.15.133