Serendipitous discovery leads to David Tewes photographic exhibition

Chris Finke, a colleague at Automattic, discovered a box of slides that were taken by the late David Tewes, Chris’ father-in-law’s cousin while Chris and his wife were going through his late father-in-law’s things.

According to MPR News –

On a spring day three years ago, Chris and Christina Finke were clearing out a building on the hobby farm near Mayer. It belonged to Christina’s dad, Doug Tewes, who had died a few years before.

“We’re deciding, you know, what stuff is going to go to Goodwill? What are we going to try and sell? What are we going to get rid of?” Chris Finke recalled.

Then he spotted something different on a shelf, in the back of the attic, where the roof met the wall. It was a hard-sided case. Inside were hundreds of old photographic slides.

Hidden for decades, work of Minnesota photographer gets its own museum exhibit | MPR News

Chris’ discovery prompted him to scan the slides, and publish them on a website, David Tewes, Shutterbug – The Mid-Century Photography of David Tewes, where the staff at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum in Winona noticed them, and reached out to Chris about exhibiting them.

The collection is a wonderful series of snapshots of mid-20th century America.

This collection appeals to me because it’s a wonderful reminder about the importance of preserving our memories as we travel through this life.

It also reminds of of my goal of digitising my late father’s slides. My Dad’s photography may not be exhibition-worthy, but they contain priceless memories from my family.

Chris has licensed the photographs under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license:

Shutter Bug by David Tewes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at https://davidtewes.com.