Tuesday 11 October 2011

Bill Owens an early influence

Today we took a drive around the San Francisco Bay area, starting in Oakland, heading south and up north to San Francisco. Miles and miles of Suburbia. When we got to San Jose, we went past the San Jose Museum of Art and noticed a poster advertising a Bill Owens exhibition. Seeing the exhibition was an unexpected treat.
©Bill Owens    


Bill Owens statement about this work and the American dream.

3 articles about Suburbia  and Bill Owens can be found on the excellent American Suburb X, here, here and here

Bill Owens was one of my earliest influences, I used to spend hours at the college library looking at his book, Suburbia. I really felt a strong infinity with his work, it touched my own alienation with being bought up in the London Suburbs, as well as my own relationship to my extended family.
The following 2 images are part of my first real photography project, I was around 21 years old at the time and this was the time I knew I wanted to be a photographer.

©George Georgiou
©George Georgiou


           



3 comments:

  1. Suburbia is a phenomenal piece of work, a pre-cursor to much more, Par for example. My favourite is the shot of the teenager up the tree pulling off the last of the autumn leaves because his dad thought it looked messy. Have a great trip...

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  2. Dear Vanessa, enjoy the time over there and good luck with the project, all the best Meike from Lucerne

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