Lost Ansel Adams negatives found?? Article included

[AUZambo]

Just saw this on Yahoo's front page...it's an interesting read. A man bought a box of old glass negatives at a yard sale, and after 10 years of investigating he's concluded that they belonged to Ansel Adams and were believed to have been destroyed in a studio fire.

I had no idea which forum to post this in!

Adams heirs skeptical about lost negatives claim - Yahoo! News

 

[ann]

it is interesting that this information has been around for several months and now all of a sudden it hits all the major information centers.

 

[Derrel]

Uh-oh...after the buzz, a woman has come forward, and she has told sources in California that the plates were shot by her uncle, Earl Brooks,a Fresno,CA photog who often shot at Yosemite...and she happens to have a print that appears to have been shot just a few minutes after one of the newly found "Adams" plates was exposed, based on the landmark in the photo and the cloud formations shown in her print, and in the newly-found plate...

The Online Photographer: Mystery Solved! They're by Uncle Earl

 

[g-fi]

I don't think they'll ever know if it's Adams work or not, and I just read an article today about this that pointed out that the woman's uncle could very well have purchased that print somewhere else, just her having it and it resembling the negative doesn't really prove anything. Totally reminds me of a documentary I watched a few months back about a woman who bought a painting at a thrift store that turned out to be purportedly by Jackson Pollack, but none of the "experts" could ever agree whether it was Pollack's work or not. I'm sure the Ansel Adams "experts" will take the same route.

It doesn't matter though, I'm sure he can unload these negatives now for a huge profit, regardless of whether they are authenticated Adams negatives or not. I guess the moral of the story is, we all need to be going to the thrift stores and garage sales a LOT MORE OFTEN!!

 

[Derrel]

Take a look at the video shot by Oakland TV station KTVU at Photo Mystery: Ansel Adams Or Uncle Earl? - News Story - KTVU San Francisco

and you can see that the "Ansel Adams" photo that Mr. Norsegian bought at a Fresno, California garage sale 10 years ago is virtually identical to the print that Mr. Brooks' elderly niece owns...and when the Ansel Adams expert with 30 years' experience examined the two photographs, one alleged to have been shot by Adams, the other KNOWN to have been shot by Mr. Brooks in 1923, the clouds in the background, big thunderheads, are virtually the SAME clouds, about a minute apart in position, and the SHADOWS under the tree are IDENTICAL...as the Adams expert,with over 30 years' experience said, the likelihood of two photographers taking two photos that are so close to identical is, well....watch the video.

So, a guy buys a box of old plates at a garage sale in Fresno, for $45. An ardent and very capable amateur photographer named Earl Brooks lived in Fresno most of his life AND he frequently took very artistic, tripod-mounted landscape photos at Yosemite, using a wide-format, glass-plate camera. The garage sale buyer sits on the plates for 10 years, and then suddenly proclaims they are Ansel Adams photos, worth $200 million...and when he releases a very unusual photo, within HOURS the niece of the actual photographer recognizes her uncle's iconic photo as being attributed to Ansel Adams...and has strong proof that the "Ansel Adams" plate is another plate, exposed within seconds, of the print she has owned for decades...same shadows, same tree, same cloud formation in the background...

Yeah...I have a $20 garage sale Renoir painting....I'm sure it's a Renoir, probably worth $140 million....wanna' buy it??

 

[ann]

someone at an analog site has been trying to "drum" up money for this sense last year. Interesting that it has hit all the news providers now.

Also, i love the bit about the plates being wrapped in newspaper with notes hand written by Virgina Adams who has mis-spelled the town she grew up in several times. RIGHT.