The Lost Negatives of Ansel Adams
An antiques collector uncovers a box of glass negatives that may, or may not, have been taken by Ansel Adams himself.
It all started at a garage sale. Avid, or obsessive, collector Rick Norsigian was scouring a Fresno, California garage sale in search of an antique barber chair when he came across a dusty box of glass photo negatives. Inside were 61 black-and-white shots of nearby Yosemite National park, including the iconic Yosemite Falls and Yosemite Valley.
Norsigian haggled the price of the box of negatives down to $45 dollars and took the photos home to live under his pool table. When friends and family visited he paraded his find in front of them, never able to answer the question of who the photographer was but always wondering whether it might just be the famed Ansel Adam? In this Backpacker Magazine feature (a sister publication to Myyosemitepark.com), writer David Howard investigates the origin of Norsigian’s negatives…and the controversy they have caused.