Photography Exhibition Documenting the Lives of California Farmworkers Opens at Shields Library

A traveling exhibition of nearly 90 works by labor photographer and journalist David Bacon offering a window into the lived experiences of farmworkers launches on Saturday, Sept. 13, at the University of California, Davis. Organized by the UC Davis Labor and Community Center in partnership with the artist, the exhibition shines a light on the experiences, strength and resilience of farmworkers in Northern California.

The exhibition, In Camps, Under Trees and Evicted: Farmworkers Living Close to the Line in Northern California, commemorates the 60th Anniversary of the 1965 farmworkers’ strike. Bacon’s work will be on view at the Peter J. Shields Library at UC Davis through Dec. 14, 2025. The works are displayed on walls opposite the main entrance near the courtyard, and in the large study space at the east end of the first floor (the opposite end of the building from the entrance).

A collection of black-and-white photographs taken over 35 years, the exhibition depicts the lived experiences of farmworkers and others living close to the line who are, in the artist’s words, “virtually invisible in the picture most people see of Northern California.” The main exhibition is accompanied by selected items from the library’s Archives and Special Collections, which includes extensive historical material related to agriculture, California history, and social and political movements of the 20th century.

In bringing these faces and voices into the public eye this month, the exhibition recalls the deep roots of the farm labor movement. On Sept. 8, 1965, Filipino grape workers led by the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee, or AWOC, organized a strike in Delano, California to protest poor pay and working conditions. On Sept. 16, the National Farm Workers Association, led by Cesar Chavez, voted to join the strike. Within a year, the two organizations would merge to form the United Farm Workers, a union that continues to organize migrant farm workers to advocate for better wages, living conditions and legal protections to this day.