[GALLERY]

ON VIEW IN THE ISLANDS

GEORGE F. LEE / STAR-BULLETIN
Jefferson Finney in his Nuuanu studio. Below, an old photo
of an unknown woman is part of his show.

Rediscovering the
moment of the image

---

By Suzanne Tswei
Star-Bulletin

TECHNICALLY, this is Jefferson Finney's first art exhibit, but it really isn't his first, nor is it an exhibit fitting the usual art show criteria.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves. The story of Finney's first art exhibit involves dinosaur eggs, the collecting bug and a fox terrier named Mickey.

First, the dinosaur eggs. As a child of 6 or 7, Finney was big on dinosaur eggs. "I used to drive my father nuts. He'd always have to pull over when he was driving because I was sure I saw dinosaur eggs on the side of the road."

They were really smooth river rocks, but Finney was convinced they were prehistoric eggs. During those trips into the California mountains, he also collected weathered cow bones that he believed to be dinosaur bones.

FOUND PHOTOS An exhibit of old photographs curated by Jefferson Finney Place: The Pegge Hopper Gallery, 1164 Nuuanu Ave. Hours: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, through April 27 Admission: Free Call: 524-1160

He treated them as precious objects -- labeling and cataloging each piece as a museum would -- and displayed them for his family and playmates.

"I've always had art shows in my room. Other kids were watching television and doing other things, but I was having art shows." Finney said. "My parents were very '60s kind of people. I never had a television when I was growing up."

The 39-year-old San Francisco native did not watch television until he moved away from home at age 18. By that time a pattern had been set. His father, a novelist, and his mother, a librarian who wrote poetry and painted, instilled in him an appreciation for art.

He outgrew his fascination for dinosaurs, but not his penchant for collecting things that appealed to his artistic eye. While working as an elementary school teacher in Oakland, Calif., Finney collected old photographs, partly for his own enjoyment and partly to use as teaching aids to help his students improve their reading and writing skills.

Part of his photo collection was of dogs, which reminded him of his fox terrier, Mickey, named after Mickey Mouse. Mickey was lovable but a handful, always getting into trouble, disappearing for days while chasing wild pigs in the California mountains.

"I loved him and I hated him," Finney said. Mickey moved to Hawaii with Finney last year but was hit by a car near their Nuuanu home early this year. In Mickey's honor, Finney put on a "Dead Dog Show" in his home with his dog photo collection, which prompted a guest to suggest it was time for Finney to show his photographs at a real art gallery.

GEORGE F. LEE / STAR-BULLETIN
An old photo of an unknown woman is part of his show.

Which brings us to his exhibit at the Pegge Hopper Gallery, "Found Photos." There are no dog pictures, and Finney describes it as "a collection of vintage black-and-white photographs found in tattered envelopes at flea markets and hidden boxes at secondhand stores or rescued from city trash bins."

Finney isn't showing his entire photo collection but has included a few photographs he's found in Hawaii's secondhand stores.

"My part in making the photographs art is that I select the photos, and I focus on (particular images) in the photographs and crop out the rest of the picture," Finney said.

Essentially, he buys photographs that intrigue him and frames them in simple white mats. But he does not manipulate the images as artists would, such as by drawing or painting on them. (He is experimenting with hand-colored photographs for future shows.)

"I hope that (viewers) will be able to walk inside the photos, use their imagination to see the stories behind the pictures. That's part of the art, too."

As it was with his elementary school students, Finney said there are no wrong answers when viewers consider the stories behind the photographs.

"With me the photographs are a visual thing. I can look at a photograph, especially a well-taken photograph, and be of that moment. If it's dusty in the photo, I can smell the dust; if it's the ocean, I can smell the ocean," he said.

The old photographs are mementos of anonymous people and their lives, with an occasional celebrity thrown in. Each offers clues to an era or an event, but the real stories behind the pictures will never be known, he said.

For example, there is a photograph of the child movie star Shirley Temple in the exhibit. Finney is sure the photograph was taken in Hawaii but has no idea about the occasion or the specific location.

Discovering these old photographs is rewarding not only because it's like finding treasures (similar to stumbling onto make-believe dinosaur eggs), but also because it's giving a second life to these images, he said.

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