Rick Norsigian used to be a commercial painter, now the 64-year-old from Fresno, California, just might have found himself his retirement nest egg (though he’s still working for the moment). Ten years ago, he bought two boxes of old photographs, envelopes, and glass negative plates at a yard sale. That $45-dollar investment (Norsigian talked the owner down from $70) has turned out to be a collection of rare Ansel Adams prints with a potential value of $200 million dollars!
Even more important, the negatives and prints are believed to be survivors of a warehouse fire that destroyed over a decade of Adams’ work, according to photography historian Patrick Alt. “It is my belief that he brought these negatives with him for teaching purposes and to show students how to not let their negatives be engulfed in a fire,” Alt said. “I think this clearly explains the range of work in these negatives, from very early pictorialist boat pictures, to images not as successful, to images of the highest level of his work during this time period.”
It’s a treasure-trove of rare work from one of the masters of photography, and it’s work long since thought lost to history. However, multiple experts in photography, handwriting verification, and art have checked for sure and verified the yard sale treasures as legitimate.
Tags: Ansel Adams, man buys box of Ansel Adams pictures at yard sale, man buys 0 million dollar photo collection at yard sale, yardsales, great finds, Rick Norsigian, Fresno, California
