Bill Owens

Damned Dishes

"How can I worry about the damned dishes when there are children dying in Vietnam."
(c) Bill Owens

Suburbia

Bill Owens was born September 25, 1938.  He is best know for his documentary type of work shooting domestic suburban scenes in housing development communities that overtook the nation after World War II.  These photos were published in a book called Suburbia, published in 1973.  These pictures capture almost a completely different world from now.  The interiors and exteriors of the houses seem very clean cut.  I enjoy the contrast between the two pictures that I have chosen for him, as one -Damned Dishes- shows how even a person living in such a clean community can still be a messy person with a busy life, and the other picture of the community party appears to be a little too clean for my taste.  We are getting an inside view on how these people from the past, living in a rigid clean world, can still relate to us today when we peek into their personal lives.