Esther Bubley
American, 1921–1998
Girl Sitting Alone in the Sea Grill, a Bar and Restaurant, Waiting for a Pick-Up, Washington, D.C.
INV-1255
Esther Bubley
American, 1921–1998April 1943
Girl Sitting Alone in the Sea Grill, a Bar and Restaurant, Waiting for a Pick-Up, Washington, D.C.
Esther Bubley American, 1921–1998 →gelatin silver (developing-out-paper) prphotographic process
Date
April 1943
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
26.3 × 26.4 cm (10 3/8 × 10 7/16 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Purchased with funds provided by Lucia Woods Lindley and Daniel A. Lindley, Jr.
In 1942 Esther Bubley began working as a darkroom assistant for the Office of War Information (OWI) in Washington D.C., and soon after she was assigned to take pictures of the American home front for the OWI files. She frequented local haunts such as the Sea Grill, chatting up regulars like the lone woman shown here, recording their comments along while making their image: “I come in here pretty often, sometimes alone, mostly with another girl, we drink beer, and talk, and of course we keep our eyes open—you’d be surprised at how often nice, lonesome soldiers ask Sue, the waitress, to introduce them to us.”
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