This Woman May Have Stumbled Across a Rare Collection of Ansel Adams Photos
A woman in Missouri claims to have come into possession of dozens of Ansel Adams photographs — the iconic American photographer who captured black and white landscapes.
Kelly Robinson believes the photos were created by Adams when he was engaged in commercial work for the Santa Fe Railway in the 1940s.
Robinson tells KRQE that she was initially interested in the photographs because they contain Native Americans and she is a collector. However, she soon learned that the Native American pictures were part of a much wider 200-strong photo collection from the Santa Fe Railway.
“The entire collection shows us kind of what was going on in the 1940s narrative around the wartime efforts; the Office of War Information hired photographers to go on site and take photos of different things that would show a thriving America,” Robinson tells KRQE.
Robinson says some of the photos were taken by Jack Delano, others by Adams, in areas of New Mexico including San Ildefonso and Taos. Both photographers were employed to tell the story of Native Americans on reservations and how they interacted with the Santa Fe railway.
Robinson says she has carried out a lot of research to verify the images including tracking Adams’ movements from 1938 to 1941 by accessing his records. She contacted the Ansel Adams gallery which apparently confirmed the pictures are his. However, the gallery tells PetaPixel that while there is an attribution it is “not willing to make a statement” before extensive inspections and research.
Because the photos were for a commercial client, they are not signed by Adams which makes it harder to verify.
“These are originals that are part of the collection and some of the photos in the collection are found in some of the old Santa Fe Railway promotional materials, so you might see them in Indian Detours, for example, from the 1940s,” Robinson explains.
“In addition, Ansel Adams’ famous photo, Moonrise Hernandez, was taken only seven miles from some of the photos I have in the same timeframe.
“I thought this is going to be another addition to my Native American Collection, so I was absolutely stunned when I found out that there was over 50 Ansel Adams photos.”
The collection could be worth six figures. Each print could be worth a few thousand which is far less than usual but that is because they are unsigned, commercial works.
“I believe an organization like a Union Station somewhere in America could purchase these and have them as an end-to-end view of what was going on with the Santa Fe railway intertwined with the government, and as produced by the photographers and the artists of the day telling that story,” Robinson says, “Ideally, it would stay together, and it would go into an exhibit.”
PetaPixel was unable to contact Robinson ahead of publication. If you have a contact for her then please get in touch via the tip line.
Update 9/6: Updated with quote from Ansel Adams’ estate.
