Bill Owens: Suburbia
Bill Owens was born and raised on a farm in Northern California. After hitchhiking around the world and a stint in the Peace Corps, he became a staff photographer for the Livermore Independent in 1968. Suburban California life soon caught his fancy. “At first I suffered culture shock,” he wrote. “The people I met enjoy the life-style of the suburbs. They have realized the American Dream. They are proud to be home owners and to have achieved material success.”
Suburbia, first published in 1972 (the same year as Diane Arbus's seminal monograph), was a slyly subversive look at an inward-looking middle class, who in their own words accompanying the photographs, were seemingly oblivious to the racial and cultural strife roiling America's cities, not to mention the Vietnam War half a world away. With over fifty years' hindsight, and with many of these same tract homes now replaced by MacMansions, and with Bill Owens himself now brewing premium beer in addition to making digital fashion photographs, we can look back with nostalgia on this brilliant time-piece.
“Andrew doesn’t like to go to the bathroom alone.”
“We're really happy. Our kids are healthy, we eat good food, and we have a really nice home.”
“Our house is built with the living room in the back, so in the evening we sit out front of the garage and watch the traffic go by.”
“I bought the lawn in six-foot rolls. It’s easy to handle. I prepare the ground and my wife and son helped roll out the grass. In one day you have a front yard.”
"How can I worry about the damned dishes when there are children dying in Vietnam."
“I enjoy the suburbs. They provide Girl Scouts, PTA, Little League, and soccer for my kids. The thing I miss most is Black cultural identity for my family. White middle-class suburbia can't supply that . . ."
“We lived in our house for a year without any living room furniture. We wanted to furnish the room with things we loved, not early attic or left-overs. Now we have everything but the pictures and the lamps.”
“We feel most people have the wrong attitude about sex, that it’s nasty and to be done only in the dark. With us sex takes care of itself.”
“Sunday afternoon we get together. I cook the steaks and my wife makes the salad.”
“I enjoy giving a Tupperware party in my home. It gives me a chance to talk to my friends. But really, Tupperware is a homemaker's dream, you save time and money because your food keeps longer.”
“I believe in women’s liberation. I’m tired of the image of the woman of the most sanitary toilet bowl, the cleanest floor, and the brattiest kids as the supermother. I want to be able to change with my children and to change with my life as I grow older . . ."
“We've been married two months and everything we own is in this room.”
“Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday . . . and Friday I have my hair done.”
“It’s fun to break up the glass. We’re doing our thing for ecology and the boy scouts will give us a badge for working here.”
"I don't feel that Richie playing with guns will have a negative effect on his personality. (He already wants to be a policeman). His childhood gun-playing won't make him into a cop-shooter. By playing with guns he learns to socialize with other children . . . "
“My husband, Pat, has a theory about watering our newly seeded lawn. The water has to trinkle from heaven and fall like tender little rain drops . . . otherwise the lawn won't grow properly.”
Number of photographs: 75
Frame sizes: 14 x16 inches
Linear feet: 220
Rental fee: $5900 for eights weeks plus shipping and insurance. Additional weeks are 10 percent per week.
This show can be combined with Bill Owens: Working/Leisure. Please inquire.