There’s a dark comedy emerging here, a sardonic parable of wishful self-reinvention by middle-aged men: wall painter Rick Norsigian as an autodidact photo connoisseur, nudie photographer Patrick Alt as a “photography expert,” museum curator Robert Moeller as another, and art hustler David Streets as yet another. I don’t want a piece of the action from Norsigian’s print sales and licensing revenues; all that may end up going to the Adams Trust, depending on how the rights issue shakes down. I want an option on the Hollywood film of the story; that’s where the big bucks lie hidden. I’m talking starring roles for Jeff Bridges, John Travolta, Jim Belushi . . . […]
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Team Norsigian’s “Final Report of Investigative Team” begins thus: “There is no uniform or standardized method of authenticating photographs. Unlike a painting, there is no signature or unique brush strokes method attaching the artist to a photograph. Therefore, each investigation into the provenance of a photograph must be unique and individualized.” Yet photographs get authenticated — and disauthenticated, if that’s the word — every day, via methods not nearly so arcane or customized as this report suggests. […] The absence of anyone on Team Norsigian with any real grounding in photo history (and I certainly include Alt in that assessment) gives the consortium a serious credibility gap. Team Norsigian’s intimation that they’re somehow spearheading an Adams revival is purely delusional. The failure to include anyone savvy enough to prevent this posse from shooting itself in the foot repeatedly in this fashion definitely ups the odds against their prevailing. […] This minor event has evoked such hysteria and vituperation from the Adams marketing machine — which does not own the negatives in question or have any claim thereto — that this phenomenon in itself merits some examination. William Turnage, managing trustee of the Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust, actually compared the claims of Norsigian to the Nazi propaganda strategy of the “big lie.” “Hitler used that technique,” Turnage said. “You don’t tell a small one. You tell a big one.” It takes one deeply sick puppy to analogize Norsigian’s assertions of authenticity for these negatives to the despised Nazi propaganda technique. Turnage should feel ashamed of himself for this loathsome conduct, which embarrasses him and the Ansel Adams Trust as well. […] |
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Team Norsigian Accentuates the Negative (4)
No other member of Team Norsigian (according to their resumés) knows anything at all about photography, or claims such knowledge. So this trio — Patrick Alt, Robert Moeller, and David Streets — represents the total expertise on photography brought to bear on this find by Team Norsigian. I estimate the cumulative value of that expertise as less than zero. It’s worth pointing out, too, that even in those ranks there’s dissension. Moeller has said of Street’s $200 million estimate, “I find it rather puzzling.” Alt, to his credit, is refreshingly straightforward: “It’s the biggest bunch of crap I’ve heard in my life.” […]