Sometime between 2000 and now the Center for Creative Photography’s policy changed dramatically, though without much fanfare — without any public announcement at all, in fact, unless I missed something. Apparently the CCP has in fact actively gotten into the Ansel Adams authentication business. This new service goes unmentioned in the Center’s mission statement, its online FAQs, or anywhere else at its website. Yet it’s now a “normal activity” at the Center — and, I gather, provided to one and all as a courtesy. When did this significant change comes about, and who’s responsible for it? […]
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In my 42 years as a critic, historian, and cultural journalist concentrating on photography, I’ve felt it necessary only twice to call publicly for the resignation of major functionaries in this field: John Szarkowski of the Museum of Modern Art (1978) and William Turnage of the Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust. Not the least of the intriguing connections here is the substantial amount of money that flowed from the latter to the former. […] William Turnage has disgraced and betrayed the Adams Trust, publicly embarrassing that entity. He has recklessly endangered the reputations of four substantial enterprises: the Adams Trust, the Center for Creative Photography, the University of Arizona, and the Ansel Adams Gallery. Perhaps most significantly of all, under Turnage’s leadership the Trust has not only besmirched itself but damaged the reputation and abused the name of Ansel Adams in the guise of protecting it. Turnage has made himself into a high-profile liability the Adams Trust and its partner institutions can no longer afford. […] The saga of Rick Norsigian and his yard-sale negatives took some intriguing turns during my 2½-week hiatus October 31-November 18. Most notable, surely, was the initiation of Melinda Pillsbury-Foster’s extensive documentation supporting claims on behalf of her grandfather, the photographer, filmmaker, inventor, lecturer, and author Arthur C. Pillsbury as the maker of the negatives in the Norsigian Collection. From my preliminary perusal of the documentation they’ve assembled, Pillsbury qualifies at least for serious consideration for potential authorship of the Norsigian Collection negatives. […] |
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Adams Authentication and the CCP (2)
According to a press release dated last Friday, on December 16, 2010, Richard “Rick” Norsigian and PRS Media Partners “publicly announced the filing of a counterclaim against the Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust. The primary allegations of the four-count suit involve claims for slander and civil conspiracy.” I’ve indicated previously that I fully expect the Adams Trust to prevail in its trademark-violation suit against Norsigian and PRS Media Partners. Yet it’s no contradiction to say that it wouldn’t surprise me if the letter consortium prevailed in its countersuit. […]