Explore CollectionsPhotographyI used to be a chef and my partner was a garbage foreman. He was making $107 a week and going crazy. Now we sell apples and oranges from the back of a pickup truck. You meet people of every race–rich and poor, doctors and dentists. Everyone loves good fruit. We’re making a living and enjoying ourselves.

I used to be a chef and my partner was a garbage foreman. He was making $107 a week and going crazy. Now we sell apples and oranges from the back of a pickup truck. You meet people of every race--rich and poor, doctors and dentists. Everyone loves good fruit. We're making a living and enjoying ourselves.

Bill Owens

American, born 1938

Details

Title

I used to be a chef and my partner was a garbage foreman. He was making $107 a week and going crazy. Now we sell apples and oranges from the back of a pickup truck. You meet people of every race--rich and poor, doctors and dentists. Everyone loves good fruit. We're making a living and enjoying ourselves.

Artist/Maker

Bill Owens (American, born 1938)

Date

1974-1976, printed 2006

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Dimensions

8 x 10 inches

Credit

Gift of Philip A. Bernstein and Luisa Recalcati

Accession #

2020.380

On View

Currently not on view

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Girl Scout uniform changes, Tri-Valley Area, Northern California

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Jewelry Display, Christmas Bazaar, Tri-Valley Area, Northern California

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Man at desk on phone, Tri-Valley Area, Northern California

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I gross over $200,000 a year as the owner-manager of a donut store, but there’s a price to pay. I come to work at 2:00 A.M. to begin the daily routine of making 250 dozen donuts. I eat dinner at 4:00 in the afternoon and am in bed by 7:30. I was a Depression baby. Now kids say there has to be something better. Tri-Valley Area, Northern California

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Part of my job as a waiter is to be a zoo-runner. We carry the huge dish of ice cream around the tables while other waiters beat a drum. Then we deliver the ice-cream zoo to the table having the party, Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour. Tri-Valley Area, Northern California

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Ladies with fashion designer, Wente Vineyards, Livermore, California

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Cameras, Press, Patty Hearst Trial, San Francisco, California

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Pleasanton’s 4-H Group, Pleasanton, California

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A plant serviceman, cleans, trims, prunes, waters and exchanges rented plants. I’m dusting a fiddle-leaf fig plant at the Trans-America building observation floor. I’m totally content with what I’m doing now.

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