DeCordova Collects Photographs: Recent Acquisitions
James Dow
Jim Dow, a long-time faculty member of Tufts University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, photographs in the documentary tradition of Walker Evans, an artist for whom Dow printed in the early 1970s. Like Evans’, Dow’s style is straight and direct, which matches his philosophy of photography: “My interest in photography centers on its capacity for exact description. I am constantly struck by the power inherent in a carefully isolated and clearly rendered object or scene. I use photography to try to record the manifestations of human ingenuity and spirit still remaining in our country’s everyday landscape.” Over the years Dow has had an enduring interest in the exteriors and interiors of places where everyday rituals are enacted—small town theaters, barber shops, billiard halls, diners, Masonic lodges, and baseball parks. His early work was in black and white, while the more recent work is in color. Dow’s photographs are devoid of human activity allowing us to derive the meaning of a place from its descriptive qualities.
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