The Face of Labor: Portrats of Working People
Graduation Date
Fall 1999
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Document Form
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Program Name
Humanities
First Reader
Leslie Ross, PhD
Second Reader
Bergen Kirk, PhD
Abstract
The Face of Labor: Portraits of Working People provides a visual glimpse with transcribed oral histories of the rich heritage of older working people. Focusing on people who have continued working beyond the usual retirement age of sixty-two, this photo documentary celebrates these individuals and their contributions to society. The exhibition of seventeen original black and white photographs, taken by Victoria Sheridan in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1999, is accompanied by written selections of interviews with these people, enabling the viewer to both visually meet and read the stories of the persons photographed. Included in this thesis project is a catalogue containing an introduction discussing the origins and evolution of social documentary photography, full-length interviews of each person photographed, and copies of the photographs from the exhibition held at the Archbishop Alemany Library, Dominican College of San Rafael, November 19 through December 18, 1999.