The Ansel Adams Publishing Trust has officially refuted the claim that 65 glass plates found at a garage sale in Fresno, Calif., were made by photographer Ansel Adams. In a lawsuit filed in August, the trust said it believes the negatives were created by previously unknown photographer Earl Brooks.
As the owner of Adams’ images and trademark, the trust is filing suit to stop Rick Norsigian, who purchased the plates 10 years ago for $45, from selling prints online under Adams’ name at ricknorsigian.com.
Norsigian, a painter for the Fresno School District, had the plates validated by handwriting, photography and forensic analysts. His experts claim that the plates are nearly identical to other known Adams images and that the handwriting on the envelopes that housed the plates appears to be that of Adams’ widow, Virginia, who died in 2000.
Norsigian has claimed that the images were taken by Adams and later obtained by Brooks. On his website, Norsigian is selling prints of the “lost” images, estimated to be worth at least $200 million all together. Before purchasing the prints, users must agree to terms stating that the Ansel Adams Trust has not officially sanctioned the work.
Since Norsigian unveiled his discovery, studies of Brooks’ images, which reside in his niece’s house in California, have provided compelling evidence that the found glass plates are not Adams’. Some notable photographers who worked with Adams claim that other images taken by Brooks are identical in composition, lighting and lens abnormalities to the alleged Adams images.
In August, former museum curator Robert C. Moeller III, a consultant who Norsigian paid $1,000 to examine the plates, recanted his opinion after viewing Brooks’ images.
Photographic experts will now try to glean the truth by examining distinctive irregularities left by negative drying racks on all of Adams’ images and comparing them to Norsigian’s plates.