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
Contact the museum for more information
Credit
Gift of Philip A. Bernstein and Luisa Recalcati
Accession #
2020.380
On View
Currently not on view
More from this Artist

America is the best country in the world. In Azores we’d go to the movies and America would seem like a dream. We came here with fifty dollars in our pocket and worked twelve hours a day, six days a week to save money to buy this dry-cleaning business. America is better than we thought. We have everything we ever wanted
Bill Owens

My goal at the end of the race is to beat at least one ten-year-old kid or one little old lady. 10K race, Livermore, 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
Bill Owens