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WORKING: A Photographic Book by Bill Owens Kirkus Star

WORKING: A Photographic Book

By

Pub Date: May 1st, 1977
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Inquisitive photographer Bill Owens has gone around the country asking, for all of us, that very American question,""What do you do for a living?"" What he relays, on film and in print, is better than a cross section, it's a congeries of occupations and outlooks, needs and desires. An assemblage of individuals. The pleasantly tidy, fortyish receptionist (""I know I'm loved and vice versa"") and the portly credit-card pioneer (""I've worked with people who made things happen""); the drug store manager who started at the bottom and the theoretical physicist who takes math problems to bed; the chiropractor aiming to retire to a worm farm (""Worms are an asset to society""). Plus salesmen with different angles, professionals with unique jobs, skilled workers--a microfilm assembly technician, a $90-a-day carpenter--with limited working lives. Many voice pride and commitment, a few raise social concerns, some (not many) ""do it for the money"" alone, only one--an auto assembly line worker--is totally alienated. But the book isn't scoring points, just showing-and-telling--the thoughts of a garbageman, a gravedigger, a nude model, a grain broker, a hooker, and others you might have hankered to meet up with. Solid, sympathetic stuff: who says working is all work?