Woman From Oakland, Calif., Claims to Have Solved Ansel Adams Mystery Once and For All

(July 29) -- Is Uncle Earl the next Ansel Adams? According to one resident of Oakland, Calif., the answer is yes.

After two days of debate over a newly surfaced collection of 65 photographic negatives attributed to the legendary environmental photographer -- a cache said to be worth a cool $200 million, if genuine -- Miriam I. Walton has come forward with evidence that the images were actually taken by her not-quite-so-legendary late relative, Earl Brooks.

Rick Norsigian holds up a historically documented photograph by Ansel Adams of a Jeffrey pine on Yosemite's Sentinel Dome and a print from one of 61 glass negatives

Eric Paul Zamora, Fresno Bee / MCT

Rick Norsigian holds up two images. On the left is a historically documented photo by Ansel Adams of a Jeffrey pine on Yosemite's Sentinel Dome. On the right is a print from one of dozens of glass negatives Norsigian bought at a garage sale.

"I keep thinking that perhaps that box of negatives belongs to Uncle Earl," Walton told Bay Area station KTVU, in a report published online Wednesday.

And indeed, at least one expert is coming around to her view. Scott Nichols, the 30-year proprietor of San Francisco's Nichols Photo Gallery, studied an image of the Jeffery pine in Yosemite National Park taken by Brooks, which looks remarkably similar to one of the supposedly rediscovered Adams images. Nichols concurred that the images were, in fact, too alike to not have been shot by the same photographer.

"To duplicate those shadows, to have the camera sit in the exact same place by two different photographers, is virtually impossible," said Nichols, who's now reported to have taken the images back to Fresno, Calif., for analysis.

The great Ansel Adams negatives debate began Tuesday, when the first reports surfaced touting Fresno resident Rick Norsigian's accidental discovery of the images. He says he picked them up at a garage sale for just $45 some 10 years ago and kept them under a pool table until he recently decided to have them appraised.

And although a handful of esteemed photography and art experts have testified as to their authenticity, many others, including Ansel's own grandson, were never so sure. In fact, Matthew Adams recently told AOL News in an exclusive interview that he thought it was "irresponsible" and "inaccurate" to claim the negatives were long-lost works by his grandfather.

Has the debate finally been settled? Have a look for yourself at an excellent composite comparison of the two images in question, available at PetaPixel.

Read the full report on Walton's story at KTVU.