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Chester County Courthouse. US 321, Chester, South Carolina
Chester County Courthouse. US 321, Chester, South Carolina

Chester County Courthouse. US 321, Chester, South Carolina

Former TitleChester County Courthouse, US 321, Chester, SC
Artist Jim Dow (American, born 1942)
Date1976
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsImage: 7 7/8 × 9 11/16 inches (19.99 × 24.61 cm)
Sheet: 8 1/2 × 10 15/16 inches (21.59 × 27.76 cm)
Credit LineGift of the Hall Family Foundation
Object number2018.51.9
SignedSigned on sheet verso, bottom center, in pencil.
InscribedTitled, dated, and editioned on sheet verso, bottom, in pencil: "CHESTER CO CH, CHESTER, SC 1975 #4/25"
Markingsnone
Edition/State/Proofed. 4/25
On View
Not on view
Collections
DescriptionImage of a large building with two staircases leading up to a porch lined with columns. The sidewalk breaks up into three sections which lead to a series of arched openings below.Gallery Label

In 1976, Dow was one of twenty-four photographers selected for a commission from the Joseph E. Seagram Corporation to photograph over eleven thousand county courthouses. This survey project, meant to commemorate the U.S. Bicentennial, focused on county courthouses as symbols of the country’s democratic system: sites where citizens gathered to vote, debate, pay taxes, and record births, deaths, and marriages.

 

Dow worked with a specific itinerary through 1976 and early 1977, making several photographs in the South, including this image. Dow credits the courthouse project with making him a better architectural photographer, forcing him to find the best angles and lighting for buildings that lacked visual interest.

Provenance
The Hall Family Foundation, Kansas City, MO, 2018;   
Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2018.
Copyright© Jim Dow
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