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.

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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.
Artist/Maker (American, born 1938)
Date1975
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsImage: 6 7/8 × 8 3/16 in. (17.5 × 20.8 cm) Overall: 8 × 9 15/16 in. (20.3 × 25.2 cm)
Credit LineGift of Thomas J. Wilson and Jill M. Garling, P2016
Object number2023.12.65
Not on view
Collections

Additional Details

Markings Verso, lower right corner (stamp, black ink): "© BILL OWENS / PUBLISHERS COPY"
Verso, lower right corner (stamp, black ink): "© BILL OWENS / EXTRA BOOK PRINT"
Published References Illustrated: Bill Owens: Working, fotofolio, 2008, p. 17; Bill Owens: Working [I Do It For The Money], Simon and Schuster, 1977, pl. 126
Signature Verso, lower right corner (pencil): "W Owens"
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
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
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
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"
Bill Owens
Date: 1975 (printed later)
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Object number: 2018.12.84
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
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
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
My First Photograph in Paris, Courtyard off Rue Jacob, Paris
My First Photograph in Paris, Courtyard off Rue Jacob, Paris
Todd Webb
Date: September 1948
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Object number: 2021.12.348
Photograph by John Bentham.
They Already Got Yo Kids ("Tricked my wisdom with the system that imprisoned my son")
Umar Rashid (Frohawk Two Feathers)
Date: 2013
Medium: Acrylic, ink, coffee, and tea on paper
Object number: 2013.2
Anatomy of My Universe
Anatomy of My Universe
André Masson
Date: 1943
Medium: Bound volume with 34 reproductions of pen-and-ink drawings
Object number: 1992.46.1
Signes (Signs), from "Anatomy of My Universe"
Signes (Signs), from "Anatomy of My Universe"
André Masson
Date: 1943
Medium: Soft-ground etching
Object number: 1992.46.2