1971
Bill Owens was born and raised in California. After volunteering in the Peace Corps he picked up photography and began his journey as a documentarian. While living in Livermore, California, in the late 1960s, he worked as a photographer for the local newspaper. He became increasingly interested in the suburban areas that became heavily populated after WWII.
Owens started photographing middle-class America and would eventually publish a best-selling book, Suburbia, in 1972. Suburbia is considered one of the most important photography books to date. He went on to publish three more books, Our Kind of People, Working and Leisure, focusing on the suburbanites of America.
Owens was the recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship, which he received in 1976.
Between working commercially and on personal photographic projects, he opened a brewery in California in 1983 and became so enamored with craft beer that he founded the American Distilling Institute and American Brewer magazine.
The photographs of Bill Owens are highly sought after and can be found in private and public collections such as the Getty Museum, Modern Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, and the Smithsonian Museum of American Art.
Find Bill Owens photography on 1stDibs.
My dad thinks it's a good idea
By Bill Owens
Located in Denton, TX
"My dad thinks it's a good idea to take all the leaves off the tree and take up the yard. I think he is crazy." Edition of 15 Signed, numbered, and artist stamp...
Silver Gelatin
We like to play war, from Suburbia
By Bill Owens
Located in Denton, TX
We like to play war, 1971 Gelatin silver print, 11 x 14 in. Edition of 15 Stamped in ink, signed, numbered, and dated in pencil on verso by Bill Owens Series: Suburbia Bill Owens wa...
Silver Gelatin
We really enjoy getting together, from Suburbia
By Bill Owens
Located in Denton, TX
"We really enjoy getting together with our friends to drink and dance. It's a wild party and we're having a great time." from series, Suburbia Edition of 15 Signed, dated and number...
Silver Gelatin
Sunday Afternoon, from Suburbia series
By Bill Owens
Located in Denton, TX
"Sunday afternoon we get it together. I cook the steaks and my wife makes the salad." Edition of 15 Signed, numbered, and artist stamp. Series: Suburbia Bill Owens was born and rais...
Silver Gelatin
We're Really Happy, from Suburbia series
By Bill Owens
Located in Denton, TX
"We're really happy. Our kids are healthy, we eat good food, and we have a really nice home." Gelatin silver print, 11 x 14 in. Signed, print date, misc. notation in pencil on vers...
Silver Gelatin
Untitled (Driveway) - Black and White Landscape, Suburban, Neighborhood
By Bill Owens
Located in Denton, TX
Untitled (Driveway) by Bill Owens presents a tranquil scene. A long driveway leads up to a house in a suburban neighborhood. Two trash cans sit in front of the garage. The garage doo...
Silver Gelatin
One Day Our Toilet Broke
By Bill Owens
Located in New York, NY
Bill Owens Before the dissolution of our marriage my husband and I owned a bar. One day a toilet broke and we brought it home, 1971 Print Paper Size: 13 x 17 inches Print Image Size...
Archival Pigment
Middle-class American Woman - American Vintage Photograph - Mid 20th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Middle-class American Woman- American Vintage Photograph is an original black and white photograph realized in the U.S in the mid-20th Century in a series of American life in the 20t...
Photographic Paper
Untitled from "Breathers (After Alzheimer's)"
By Jon Feinstein
Located in Sante Fe, NM
Breathers (After Alzheimer's) is an emotional typology of Pacific Northwest trees and their relationship to the developing landscape of my mother in-law’s early-onset Alzheimer’s Dis...
Archival Pigment
Strange - American Vintage Photograph - Mid 20th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Strange - American Vintage Photograph is an original black and white photograph realized in the U.S in the mid-20th Century in a series on American life in the 20th Century. With th...
Photographic Paper
Middle-class Life - American Vintage Photograph - Mid 20th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Middle-class Life - American Vintage Photograph is an original black and white photograph realized in the U.S in the mid-20th Century in a series of American life in the 20th Century...
Photographic Paper
Home Demonstration - American Vintage Photograph - Mid 20th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Home Demonstration - American Vintage Photograph is an original black and white photograph realized in the U.S in the mid-20th Century in a series of American life in the 20th Centur...
Photographic Paper
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