Ansel Adams Photography Collection for Sale

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Ansel Adams (1902-1984), Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite Vall...

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To think, years ago while a young, underpaid university professor, I could have had a wall-sized print of any of Ansel's images, personally autographed to me, for only a few hundred dollars. But at that time, when my annual income was about what Barb is getting as a monthly salary, that was way out of my reach (a VW Beetle was under $2000 in those days, and gas was 30 cents a gallon, or 50 cents in the distant reaches of the Sierra). But I do have what is to me more valuable than any of the pictures - personal instruction from him in photography, a number of years of correspondence, and a friendship and acquaintance of a number of years. And, as it turns out, I am actually mentioned (though not by name) in one of his books. Too bad my photographic skills never got to more than the "passable" level.

I see that they expect the Clearing Winter Storm print to go for $250-300 thousand (!) for the 40 1/2 x 54 5/8 size (only $25-35k for the smaller 15 1/8 x 18¾in. size)). I do see a few items with an expected range starting as low as $4000. And a 14 3/8 x 19 1/8in. print of "Moonrise" is expected to go for "only" $25-35 thousand.

Oh, well, maybe I can buy the catalog, only $40 plus shipping.

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Bill, I saw a few Adams prints for sale at Photo LA a few weeks ago. This is a big show of different galleries from all over the place, mostly US, but a few foreign galleries as well. The prints I saw were in the 25-75K range, if I remember right. I think one gallery had a Clearing Storm print and a Moonrise print in that price range.

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Adams influenced regular guys like myself. I used a lot of black and white film when we hiked, trying to have photos look something like his.

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