Seeing Silicon Valley
Acclaimed photographer Mary Beth Meehan collaborated with Stanford professor Fred Turner to highlight an often overlooked side of Silicon Valley: the people who are struggling to make ends meet in a region known as the center of technological innovation. A selection of portraits and text from their award-winning book Seeing Silicon Valley is on display throughout Hohbach Hall's study spaces.
Unlike our other exhibit experiences, this installation is displayed throughout the first floor of Hohbach Hall. There are five areas with portraits, as well as banners displayed on the concrete pillars in the main study area.
Teresa, 2017
archival digital inkjet print on Sintra
“In the last few weeks, Teresa’s parents have been visiting from Mexico. She hasn’t seen them since she was a teenager, twenty-two years ago. ‘Es muy dificil para uno,’ she says. ‘It’s really hard.’”
Seeing Silicon Valley, p. 28
Teresa, an immigrant from Mexico, works full-time in a food truck that caters to Silicon Valley clientele and serves locations across the valley, including Tesla headquarters, Whole Foods at Cupertino, and here at Stanford. Behind Teresa, evidence of a long workday populates the background—empty tubs of guacamole and salsa to the left and a full trashcan to the right. After her shift, she will return to an apartment in Redwood City that she shares with her four daughters.
Banner Text
In the last few weeks, Teresa's parents have been visitng from Mexico. She hasn't seen them since she was a teenager, twenty two years ago.
Seeing Silicon Valley, pg. 28
Abraham & Brenda, 2017
archival digital inkjet print on Sintra
“[Abraham and Brenda] took their savings and bought a trailer, and now they live in a long row of trailers in Palo Alto, parked in front of the Stanford campus. This usually works out okay, but there are times—like on the day of a big football game—when the University demands that the trailers clear out. On those days, [they] drive over the hills to Half Moon Bay and look out at the sea.”
Seeing Silicon Valley, p. 41
Abraham and Brenda lost their house after the housing market crash in 2008 and now live in a trailer on the outskirts of Stanford’s campus. While nearby trees cast shadows over parts of the trailer only a few minutes walk from here, Abraham and Brenda’s faces are clearly illuminated.
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Abraham and Brenda live in a long row of trailers parked in front of the Stanford Campus...there are times–like on the day of a big football game–when the university demands that the trailers clear out.
Seeing Silicon Valley, pg. 41
Ravi & Gouthami, 2017
archival digital inkjet print on Sintra
“After studying in India and working in Wisconsin and Texas, they have landed here, in the international center of technology…they would like to stay, but they don’t feel confident that they can save, invest, start a family. They’re not sure what to do next.”
Seeing Silicon Valley, p. 16
Meehan frames Ravi and Gouthami’s embrace in an arresting composition that grounds the couple in the comforting strength of their bond. However, despite finding a local immigrant community and earning multiple degrees between them—in biotechnology, computer science, chemistry, and statistics—confidence in their future life in Silicon Valley still eludes them.
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After studying in India and working in Wisconsin and Texas, Ravi and Gouthami landed here...they would like to stay, but they don't feel confident that they can save, invest, start a family.
Seeing Silicon Valley, pg. 16
Mark, 2017
archival digital inkjet print on Sintra
“Mark didn’t crawl when he was supposed to, didn’t walk. He required constant care. Years later, Yvette heard an ad on the radio from a law firm asking women if they had worked in the electronics industry and if they had a child with symptoms that sounded like Mark’s…Yvette learned that the green mixture that she had been handling and inhaling was over 60 percent lead, a substance known since the time of ancient Romans to cause miscarriages and birth defects.”
Seeing Silicon Valley, p. 49
Santa Clara County, the center of Silicon Valley, has the highest concentration of Superfund sites in the nation. Stanford Professor Fred Turner writes, “Without a map of Superfund sites in the Valley …it’s impossible to know what’s under your feet” (Seeing Silicon Valley, p. 2). Mark, captured by Meehan’s camera while his beloved karaoke machine’s pink and red lights swirl around him, is middle aged and still requires constant care because of the birth defects likely caused by his mother’s job during the 1970s. These jobs have since migrated overseas, predominantly to Asia, where there are less regulations in place to protect workers.
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Responding to a radio ad for women who had worked in the electronics industry and had a child with symptoms like Mark's, Yvette learned that the green mixture she had handled and inhaled was over 60% lead.
Seeing Silicon Valley, pg. 49
Cristobal, 2017
archival digital inkjet print on Sintra
“Cristobal has spent a lot of time thinking about his time in the army, about how he fought to defend the freedoms that allow a company like Facebook to flourish in this country.”
Seeing Silicon Valley, p. 13
Cristobal, a United States Army veteran, commands attention as he looks at the viewer from the threshold of his home—a shed in a Mountain View backyard. As a full-time contract security officer at Facebook, he earns $21 per hour; this is the home he can afford. He is active in efforts to organize service employees in Silicon Valley for better compensation and benefits. Cristobal’s stance on the threshold of his shed is both precarious and assertive.
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Cristobal spends a lot of time thinking about his time in the army, about how he fought to defend the freedoms that allow companies like Facebook to flourish in this country.
Seeing Silicon Valley, pg. 13
Imelda, 2017
archival digital inkjet print on Sintra
“With housing prices what they are, Imelda lives in a trailer in a friend’s driveway. She has no utilities in the trailer, so she goes in and out of her friend’s cottage to use the bathroom and kitchen…in Imelda’s sink sits a strainer of persimmons and guavas, gifts from the people whose houses she’s cleaned.”
Seeing Silicon Valley, p. 51
Imelda’s portrait at first glance appears to capture a moment of springtime warmth—bright pinks and yellows mix with light blues to adorn the trailer she calls home. Imelda, sitting with her hands in her lap, draws you in with her expression and body language for a closer look. How would you interpret her expression?
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With housing prices what they are, Imelda lives in a trailer in a friend's driveway...In her sink sits a strainer of persimmons and guavas, gifts from the people whose houses she's cleaned.
Seeing Silicon Valley, pg. 51
Justyna, 2017
archival digital inkjet print on Sintra
“As I look around, we seem to be losing ourselves. If we want to achieve excellence in technology, why can’t we achieve excellence in being good to each other?”
Justyna, Seeing Silicon Valley, p. 26
Justyna’s clothing and erect posture make her pop against the lush green background of cypress trees and landscaped paths common to Silicon Valley. Is she near a corporate park or the mansion-turned-shared-living-space that she shares with other engineers and scientists in Cupertino? Justyna, an immigrant from Poland, came to California with dreams of developing an autonomous emergency response system for natural disasters. She now describes that time as “when I was still idealistic” and has settled into a job working on self-driving cars.
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"If we want to achieve excellence in technology, why can't we achieve excellence in being good to each other?"
Justyna, reflecting on trends she's seen in the tech field
Richard, 2017
archival digital inkjet print on Sintra
“We don’t want to break ‘em. We just want a larger piece of the pie—so we can have a cooler of beer every now and then, go camping once in a while.”
Richard, Seeing Silicon Valley, p. 54
Richard seems to be in the middle of a conversation on his smoke break as he might have when he worked at the former NUMMI automobile manufacturing plant to make cars for General Motors until it was closed. Then he was hired at the same plant after Tesla took over. He went from earning $120,000 per year at GM to making $18 per hour, or less than $40,000 a year at Tesla. After an attempt to unionize with the UAW, Richard and four hundred other workers were fired in October 2017, which the National Labor Relations Board later concluded was illegal and retaliatory.
As of October 2023, Tesla’s automotive workers are not unionized.
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"We don't want to break 'em. We just want a larger piece of the pie–so we can have a cooler of beer every now and then, go camping once in a while."
Richard, expanding on Tesla workers' unionization efforts
Konstance, 2019
archival digital inkjet print on Sintra
“As a teacher, Konstance is one of the thousands of public servants in Silicon Valley who can’t afford to live in the places they serve.”
Seeing Silicon Valley, p. 80
Konstance and one of her daughters pose in her classroom. They cannot afford to live in the school district where she works. In July 2017, she won a significant rent contribution in a lottery run by Facebook. It subsidized rent for teachers who taught near the company’s Menlo Park headquarters. While Konstance and her daughters benefited in the short term, their housing situation remains insecure, because it is unclear if this pilot program will lead to stable, affordable housing in the long term.
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When Konstance and her two daughters moved to within walking distance of the family's school, she was suddenly surrounded by what she'd been missing: time.
Seeing Silicon Valley, pg. 80