Explore CollectionsPhotographyAmerica is the best country in the world. In Azores we’d go to the movies and America would seem like a dream. We came here with fifty dollars in our pocket and worked twelve hours a day, six days a week to save money to buy this dry-cleaning business. America is better than we thought. We have everything we ever wanted

America is the best country in the world. In Azores we'd go to the movies and America would seem like a dream. We came here with fifty dollars in our pocket and worked twelve hours a day, six days a week to save money to buy this dry-cleaning business. America is better than we thought. We have everything we ever wanted

Bill Owens (American, born 1938)

Details

Title

America is the best country in the world. In Azores we'd go to the movies and America would seem like a dream. We came here with fifty dollars in our pocket and worked twelve hours a day, six days a week to save money to buy this dry-cleaning business. America is better than we thought. We have everything we ever wanted

Artist/Maker

Bill Owens (American, born 1938)

Date

1974, printed 2006

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Dimensions

Contact the museum for more information

Credit

Gift of Dr. Roger Hartl

Accession #

2022.267

Location

Currently not on view

Image Copyright

© Bill Owens

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Kiss me. Kiss me. Livermore, California

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I used to be a chef and my partner was a garbage foreman. He was making $107 a week and going crazy. Now we sell apples and oranges from the back of a pickup truck. You meet people of every race–rich and poor, doctors and dentists. Everyone loves good fruit. We’re making a living and enjoying ourselves.

I used to be a chef and my partner was a garbage foreman. He was making $107 a week and going crazy. Now we sell apples and oranges from the back of a pickup truck. You meet people of every race–rich and poor, doctors and dentists. Everyone loves good fruit. We’re making a living and enjoying ourselves.

Bill Owens

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