Girl Sitting Alone in the Sea Grill, a Bar and Restaurant, Waiting for a Pick-Up, Washington, D.C.

Esther BubleyWW-1943-105374

1943·Gelatin silver print·26.3 × 26.4 cm (10 3/8 × 10 7/16 in.)

<p>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.”</p>

Catalogue

Year: 1943
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Dimensions: 26.3 × 26.4 cm (10 3/8 × 10 7/16 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Esther Bubley

Artist

Esther Bubley

Photography

Esther Bubley was an American photographer who documented postwar American life through color and black-and-white photography, focusing on domestic interiors, public transportation, and ordinary citizens. Working primarily in the 1940s and 1950s, she created extensive series for the Farm Security Administration and other government agencies, capturing the texture of daily experience with compositional precision and psychological insight. Her work bridged documentary practice and fine art photography at a moment when color film remained largely relegated to commercial use.

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