This site will work and look better in a browser that supports web standards, but it is accessible to any browser or Internet device.
Women in Black: The Changing Face of the Connecticut Judiciary
About the Project
This exhibit comprises 76 portraits of Connecticut's women judges, both federal and state, including magistrates. The portraits were made as part of the Connecticut Bar Foundation's James W. Cooper Fellows Oral History of Connecticut Women in the Legal Profession.
In 1999, the Connecticut Bar Foundation James W. Cooper Fellows began creating a permanent historical audio and videotaped record of the Connecticut legal profession's most memorable moments as women entered the legal profession. Connecticut appointed its first woman judge in 1960. As of April 2007, 76 women were serving as judges in the federal and state court systems.
These images provide a striking visual statement about the presence of women in Connecticut's judiciary and consequently, their part in the state's history.
About the Photographer
Isabel Chenoweth, a former lawyer, made these portraits between 2001 and 2007.
Her other recent projects include The Elements of Parks, in which she photographed more than 60 neighborhood parks in Boston for a foundation funding research into the design of public parks and their use by the city's growing immigrant population. An image from the series won grand prize in the national multimedia show "Close to Home" at Creative Arts Workshop in New Haven (May 2005) and juried by Jacquelyn Days Serwer, chief curator of the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C. The resulting prize-winners' show was held at Creative Arts Workshop in January 2006.
In September 2006, Ms. Chenoweth also exhibited a series of images from the 2005 Little League World Series at the Loudoun County Library in Ashburn, Virginia. About one hundred images from this project appear in Little League, Big Dreams by Charles Euchner (Sourcebooks, Inc. 2006).
In addition to portraiture, Ms. Chenoweth photographs weddings, bar mitzvahs and other events and is the photographer for Rye Country Day School in Rye, New York and Cold Spring School in New Haven, Connecticut.
Ms. Chenoweth holds a B.A. from Vassar College and a J.D. from the College of William and Mary, Marshall-Wythe School of Law.