The Mystery of the Ansel Adams Negatives

When is an Ansel Adams print not an Ansel Adams print? That is the million dollar question as the Adams Trust has sued a California man who is selling posters and prints made from negatives he claims were shot by Adams. With the filing of the suit the story has re-surfaced of how the glass negatives, supposed to have been destroyed in a Yosemite darkroom fire in the 1930's, were purchased at a Fresno garage sale ten years ago. My question is how did the negatives make it through the fire without Adams' knowledge and then survive more than sixty years only to wind up in someones garage? The bigger problem for the company selling prints and posters from these negatives may be copyright infringement. Even if the negatives are the real thing, and I have my doubts, the Trust may argue that only they have legal right to authorize production and sale of Ansel Adams images.

The Trust brought up a statement made by Ansel Adams likening a negative to a musical score, while the printed photograph is the performance. Adams was a meticulous photographic craftsman whose method encompassed the exposure of an image in-camera, processing the negative, exposing the negative onto photo paper and finally processing the paper print. Each phase contributing to the quality of the finished photograph. Today a print may be made from an Ansel Adams negative, but it is not truly an Ansel Adams print. Which is why those original hand crafted Adams photographs command six figures in auction.