36 Cents for 12 Bunches - Green Onion Field, Salt River Valley, Arizona

Ken Light

A vintage selenium toned gelatin silver print, "36 Cents for 12 Bunches...." was included in Light's book "With These Hands", chronicling the work of migrant farm workers in the USA. The text was by Paula DiPerna and there is a preface by United Farm Workers' founder Cesar Chavez discussing seasonal labor and the Farm Workers' Unions.

Photography collectors Walter and Naomi Rosenblum comment "Ken Light's images of worker's reveal a compassionate concern for people that places them in the tradition of socially motivated photographs of Lewis Hine and Dorothea Lange."

This photograph depicts the farm workers harvesting the onions in Salt River Valley in central Arizona, which includes the Phoenix area. The Salt River runs through Gila and Maricopa Counties and is a tributary of the Gila River. The workers only received 36 cents for 12 bunches of onions picked.