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.”