Skip to Main Content
Working

My father came from Japan in the 1920s because America was the land of opportunity. During World War II we were interned in Utah and had to sacrifice the farm. It has taken thirty years to build up this vegetable farm to seventy acres with eleven men helping me. My son doesn't want to farm—it's hard work with little money. He works in the Blue Chip redemption center. Tri-Valley Area, Northern California

1975
(American, b. 1938)
America
gelatin silver print
Image: 17.5 x 21.3 cm (6 7/8 x 8 3/8 in.); Paper: 20.2 x 25.2 cm (7 15/16 x 9 15/16 in.)
Gift of George Stephanopoulos 2019.286
Location: not on view
This artwork is known to be under copyright.

Download, Print and Share

Did You Know?

There was a serious decline in job satisfaction in America in the last half of the 1970s.

Description

In his examination of people’s attitudes towards their jobs, Owens gives us the subjects’ own words to accompany his images of them. The series was not as much a critique as a mirror that allowed people some distance from which to view their situation. This and his other projects conveyed both the comfort of suburban middle-class life and an undercurrent of dissatisfaction and disillusionment with it.
My father came from Japan in the 1920s because America was the land of opportunity. During World War II we were interned in Utah and had to sacrifice the farm. It has taken thirty years to build up this vegetable farm to seventy acres with eleven men helping me. My son doesn't want to farm—it's hard work with little money. He works in the Blue Chip redemption center. Tri-Valley Area, Northern California

My father came from Japan in the 1920s because America was the land of opportunity. During World War II we were interned in Utah and had to sacrifice the farm. It has taken thirty years to build up this vegetable farm to seventy acres with eleven men helping me. My son doesn't want to farm—it's hard work with little money. He works in the Blue Chip redemption center. Tri-Valley Area, Northern California

1975

Bill Owens

(American, b. 1938)
America

See Also

Visually Similar Artworks

Contact us

The information about this object, including provenance, may not be currently accurate. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about this object, please email collectionsdata@clevelandart.org.

To request more information about this object, study images, or bibliography, contact the Ingalls Library Reference Desk.

All images and data available through Open Access can be downloaded for free. For images not available through Open Access, a detail image, or any image with a color bar, request a digital file from Image Services.