Photographers Bill Owens and Brian Ulrich on "The Aesthetics of Suburbia"

Photographers Bill Owens and Brian Ulrich on "The Aesthetics of Suburbia" October 18

SFAI Fall 2006
Visiting Artists and Scholars Lecture Series
Lecture Hall
San Francisco Art Institute
800 Chestnut Street Campus

October 18, 2006, 7:30pm
free and open to the public

Sprawl, Big box stores, and mall rats are ubiquitous aspects of American life, and subjects that are increasingly common in contemporary photography. In this presentation and dialogue, two photographers from different generations will discuss their approaches to depicting suburbia.

Born in San Jose, California in 1938, Bill Owens first made his mark by photographing the cultural life of his Livermore neighbors. His work has since become a landmark chronicle of the mid-century suburban explosion and a seminal influence for an entire generation of American photographers. Owens has enjoyed numerous solo exhibitions worldwide and has had seven monographs of his work published, including Suburbia, 1973; Working (I Do It for the Money), 1977; and Leisure, 2004. In addition, Owens founded Buffalo Bill's Brewery and is the publisher of American Brewer Magazine. http://www.billowens.com

Brian Ulrich's large-scale photographs engage the excesses and peculiarities of American consumer culture. The images from his ongoing Copia series depict private moments in busy public environments such as "big-box" retailers and thrift stores. Finding a mix of banality and humanity in the interactions within these spaces, the images scrutinize familiar rituals of consumption, while maintaining an essence of empathy. Ulrich's work has been exhibited at numerous venues throughout the United States including a 2005 solo show at The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. A book of Ulrich's s images will be published by Aperture in 2006.
http://www.notifbutwhen.com