Suburbia is a book by Bill Owens, a photojournalism monograph on suburbia, published in 1973 by Straight Arrow Press, the former book publishing imprint of Rolling Stone. A revised edition was published in 1999 by Fotofolio (ISBN 978-1-881270-40-9).
.jpg) First edition cover | |
| Author | Bill Owens |
|---|---|
| Subject | photojournalism |
| Publisher | Straight Arrow Press |
Publication date | 1973 (revised 1999) |
Background
editOwens primarily photographed residents of Livermore, California as a photographer for Livermore Independent News[1]. Most of the images are black-and-white, shot with a wide-angle lens, and paired with captions drawn from the subjects' own words.[2]
Response
editArt Seidenbaum wrote in the Los Angeles Times that the book was:
"a sort of black-and-white documentary which roused pity, contempt, laughter and self-recognition in me. Like Walker Evans' memorable photographic study of the Depression, you know these people are real. And what saves journalist Owens from being a snob or voyeur is that he includes himself in their middle-class midst."[3]
Ian Jeffrey later noted that:
"Owens's influence was immense during the 1970s, especially with respect to the kind of portraiture-by-agreement on show here."[4]
In 2001, Suburbia was included in Andrew Roth's The Book of 101 Books: Seminal Photographic Books of the Twentieth Century.
References
edit- ↑ Cavallaro, Christina (January 8, 2026). "Photography Exhibition Captures an Era: Legendary Camera Man Bill Owens Presents a Nostalgic Slice of Tri-Valley Life". The Independent.
- ↑ Ahrens, Frank (March 24, 2000). "The American Dream, Circa 1970: Suburbia Photographs Capture How Much We've Changed". The Washington Post.
- ↑ Seidenbaum, Art (April 24, 1973). "Mom, Dad and Mortgage". Los Angeles Times. p. C1.
- ↑ Jeffrey, Ian (2005). The Photography Book. Phaidon. p. 355. ISBN 978-0-7148-3634-8.
External links
edit
- Suburbia online gallery at the California Museum of Photography website
- Suburbia online gallery at the Brigham Young University website
- Bill Owens. Vine Cinema, 1722 First Street, Livermore billboard, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask), from Suburbia, 1969-72 - MutualArt
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