2010: That Was The Year That Was

John R. Stoebner, Esq.

This marks the end of the first full calendar year for Photocritic International. During that period I’ve published 57 posts here (counting this one), slightly more than one per week. The majority of those polemics and reports constituted responses to two important stories: (a) the crisis of the Polaroid Collection, and its partial dispersal through a spring 2010 auction at Sotheby’s in New York; and (b) the claim by Rick Norsigian and his cohorts — whom I collectively dubbed Team Norsigian, which moniker they subsequently adopted for themselves — that the 65 anonymous glass-plate negatives he bought for $45 at a Fresno yard sale in 2000 represent “the lost negatives of Ansel Adams.”

Photocritic International provided more extensive and detailed coverage of both these significant stories than any other print or online source — including substantial contributions by others whom I invited to publish them here (in the form of Guest Posts), not to mention a considerable string of shorter comments from readers appended to the main posts themselves. As a result, this blog has begun to become the serious forum I envisioned when I premiered it in June 2009.

George H. Singer, Esq.

The year 2010 began for Photocritic International with threats of a six- to seven-figure lawsuit from three goons in expensive suits, related to my investigation of the Polaroid Collection debacle. The goodfellas in question who tried making me an offer I couldn’t refuse: Mitchell Zuckerman, President of Sotheby’s Ventures, LLC: John R. Stoebner, the court-appointed Chapter 7 Trustee in the PBE Corporation bankruptcy proceeding; and George H. Singer, Esq., Stoebner’s attack poodle. Nothing came of it, of course; bullies like this are mostly bluster. My investigative reportage continued unabated, though to minimal avail; the auction did take place, alas. However, Sotheby’s and the trustee were forced to yank several dozen pieces therefrom by photographers with standing who protested the sale, based on their agreements with the original Polaroid Collection — documents first made public at this blog. And the trustee was forced as well to agree to keep the remainder of the collection intact, find a suitable institutional home for it, and consult with those photographers and their legal counsel on the eventual placement of the collection — a small victory.

William Turnage, managing trustee, Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust

The year concluded, approximately, with my call for the resignation of another thug, William “Wild Bill” Turnage, managing trustee of the Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust, consequent to his corruption of the Center for Creative Photography and the University of Arizona-Tucson, where that institution is based. Turnage did so as part of his campaign to discredit Team Norsigian — a strategy that clearly backfired, since it only achieved the besmirching of the reputations of the CCP, the UofA, the Adams Trust, and Turnage himself. This came to light because Turnage failed to realize that the electronic paper trail he left as head of a registered trust was subject to public disclosure, and that Norsigian attorney Arnold Peter would ferret it out. Not the quickest puppy in the litter, our “Wild Bill,” and certainly unfit for the office he holds. I predict we’ll wave bye-bye to him in the coming year.

Though some 2010 posts have come after the one demanding Turnage’s departure, these two moments highlight and bookend a clearly eventful year in the life of this blog. Along the way I’ve addressed other subjects, but these two sagas have preoccupied me here.

Collector Rick Norsigian. Image courtesy of Rick Norsigian.

Some readers find my tracking of stories at such length bothersome. One recent anonymous would-be commenter wrote, “I used to like the Photocritic International site a lot, but it’s gotten saturated with the Norsigian case. I hope you’ll move onto other topics in 2011.” (Note: As a matter of editorial policy for this blog, I disallow and trash all anonymous comments, no matter how well-written and germane.) Coverage of such stories will terminate when the stories themselves resolve; until then, it will continue.

The situation of the Polaroid Collection remains up in the air insofar as the disposition of the unauctioned bulk of the collection goes; I anticipate further posts on that score once the trustee finds a home or homes for the almost 15,000 images still in his hands. The Norsigian/Adams story seems to have just hit its stride, what with two court cases active and at least two other potential candidates for production of these negatives identified and under consideration as I write this. I’ll “move on” when this increasingly convoluted narrative reaches its conclusion.

"Sotheby's Billboard, Manhattan, June 2010," by A. D. Coleman

For every reader turned off by this blog’s concentration on such stories, there’s another breathlessly awaiting the next chapter. As Rick Nelson sang, “You can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.” I track these stories with such seeming obsessiveness because they fascinate me as a critic, historian, and cultural journalist; because — it should go without saying — I think they represent important and resonant moments in the medium’s evolution; and because, as the evidence shows, no one else will do so, which means they’ll go unexplored in depth otherwise. Time will tell whether my investment of effort in them was wise or foolish.

I do realize that some readers won’t find them as compelling as I do, so I try to leaven such ongoing discussion with posts on other subjects and contributions by other voices. There’d be more of that if this blog had financial support from its readers, or from one or more sponsors or advertisers, but that’s not the case so far. As things stand, I allocate my limited resources as I see fit. Anyone who wants to call the tune (or ask me to change it) needs to pay the piper. I can be bought, and cheaply: If you want me to write on a topic other than the current main story, make a donation of $50 via the PayPal widget at the top of the right-hand column of any page of this blog. I’ll choose another subject for the next post, and — if you so indicate in a note accompanying your donation — will credit you as that post’s sponsor.

With that said, Photocritic International received over 800,000 pageviews in 2010. I anticipate that’ll go well over 1 million in 2011. This makes it by far the most popular feature at The Nearby Café (the larger site within which it’s imbedded), as well as the most widely read blog by any critic/historian of photography.

This year I sought (but did not receive) a grant to subsidize the development of Photocritic International. I asked for a foundation’s support for the following enhancements of this blog:

• Increase frequency of book and exhibition reviews, event reports, polemics, commentary, etc.
• Add substantially to the selection of “legacy” texts from my own archive, to give the content historical depth.
• Continue and expand the invitational Guest Posts, to diversify further the mix of voices presented here.
• Add to the existing audio and video files with QuickTime movies, podcasts, slideshows, etc., created specifically for this site.
• Enhance the blog with such new features as online portfolios, online books, PDF downloads, and more.

Sponsored, reader-supported, or self-subsidized, these remain my goals for 2011. Next New Year’s Eve we can look back together and see how much of that ambition I realized over the coming 12 months. Meanwhile, some special thanks:

• to the Guest Posters who have accepted my invitation to create new texts for publication here;
• to one of those Posters, U.S. Magistrate Judge (retired) Sam Joyner, who became part of the legal team negotiating the above-described agreement on behalf of the photographers in the case of the embattled Polaroid Collection;
• to those who’ve appended thoughtful public Comments, pro and con, that have enhanced my own probings and developed a genuine dialogue in this space;
• to those who, privately and behind the scenes, have fed me leads and tips, pointed me toward valuable documentation, and otherwise facilitated my work and enriched these accounts (you know who you are, and your secrets are safe with me);
• to my fellow bloggers, my journalist colleagues, and others who have quoted my posts and/or linked to them, thereby bringing new readers to this blog;
• and to the small but important handful of people who have put their money where my mouth is, so to speak, by making cash contributions in support of this project.

I send my best wishes for 2011 to these people in particular, and to all the readers of Photocritic International. May our words be carefully measured, our film properly exposed; and, as the Irish say, may the road not rise up to smack us in the face.

Here’s one of my alter egos, the performance-art persona known as The Derrière Garde, with a greeting and some sage advice for the year ahead: