Artwork Page for Electronics Technician, Tri-Valley Area, Northern California

Details / Information for Electronics Technician, Tri-Valley Area, Northern California

Series Title: Working

Electronics Technician, Tri-Valley Area, Northern California

1974–76

Bill Owens

(American, b. 1938)
Culture
America
Medium
gelatin silver print
Measurements
Image: 16.2 x 20.7 cm (6 3/8 x 8 1/8 in.); Paper: 20.1 x 25.2 cm (7 15/16 x 9 15/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of George Stephanopoulos 2020.324
Copyright
Copyright
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location
Not on view
Print
?

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.
A horizontally oriented black-and-white photograph depicts two men with light skin tones in a workshop. In the center, a man with glasses and a striped short-sleeved shirt faces us, mouth open. To our right, an upright electronic cabinet stands with its back panel removed, exposing internal components. On our left, a second man sits at a cluttered workbench with his back turned, working beneath adjustable lamps and an oscilloscope.

Electronics Technician, Tri-Valley Area, Northern California

1974–76

Bill Owens

(American, b. 1938)
America

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