Bill Owens: LEISURE
September 17 – October 29, 2005

Photographs from the 1970s were compiled to create the book (released this year), LEISURE. Bill Owens’ earlier book, SUBURBIA, was released in the 1970s and became one of the most influential photography monographs of the 20th Century*. In Suburbia, Owens documented the banal beginnings of California suburban life.

The new book, Leisure, features a photographic essay of people enjoying their leisure activities during vacation or through hobbies, sports activities, etc. Photographs from this essay will be exhibited in Owens’ second solo exhibition at Photographs Do Not Bend Gallery.

“Owens is among the generation of photographers, including Robert Adams, William Eggleston, Steven Shore, and Joel Sternfeld, who used the tradition of documentary photography to explore the complexities and contradictions of the American landscape. To varying degrees, they used an objective style of photography in an effort to locate a perfect tension between banality and beauty, domesticity and nature, criticism and admiration.”
-Gregory Crewdson (from the book’s introduction, A Particular Kind of Strangeness)

This body of work was exhibited earlier this year at the International Center for Photography in New York. Bill Owens will be present for the opening reception, Saturday, September 17, 2005 from 6 – 8 PM.

Saturday will also be the Dallas Art Dealers Assoc. (DADA) Fall Gallery Walk from 2 PM – 8 PM. A party sponsored by DADA will be scheduled from 8 – 11 PM in the Design District of Dallas. Photographs Do Not Bend Gallery is a member of DADA.


* The Book of 101 Books: Seminal Photographic Books of the 20th Century by Andrew Roth.


To view vintage images, click here.

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