What you find at a garage sale can be amazing and surprising! So imagine how you’d feel if you discovered a trove of the most iconic images of the American West! That’s where a rare and amazing find – dozens of glass negatives revealing the California landscape of the 1920s turned up. Saved and treasured, thanks to the attuned eye of California antiques collector Rick Norsigian these images are only just now released as prints for all to enjoy via www.thelostnegatives.com.
Such serendipity that Rick’s curiosity led to this extraordinary find: long lost expressions of the drama that is nature – images of Yosemite (scenes he immediately recognized from time spent there during his younger days) and the California Coast (on up to San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf). Who was this photographer who so artistically expressed an abiding love for the vanishing wilderness? How did he develop such an accomplished eye? Why did he feel compelled to capture nature at its most awe-inspiring?
No one knows the answers to these questions. The mystery of the photographer’s identity is unsolved. But it’s the backstory that intrigues: hunting for unique antiques to add to his growing collection, Rick Norsigian, a retired commercial painter, was looking to buy a barber chair In Fresno, California when he spotted a vintage wooden crate. Seeing something shiny in this beat-up box, he found what turned out to be glass negatives. It took only one look for him to recognize familiar images of Yosemite the California Coast. He bickered with the seller, finally negotiating down from $70 to $45 for the box abandoned since the 1940s at warehouse salvage in Los Angeles.
Rick Norsigian the avid collector whose story forms the heart of this saga, lives in Los Angeles; his home practically overflowing with remarkable antiques and intriguing collectibles. It is through his astute eye, his exceptional collector’s sensibility, that he realized the rarity of the images he discovered that sunny afternoon in Fresno. He plans, with the help of his son and daughter, to tour the The Lost Negatives to arts institutions in the next year.
“The images display an intimate interaction with nature, demonstrating the mystery photographer’s amazing talent and ability to capture some of nature’s most majestic creations,” said John Norsigian, Rick’s brother and cofounder of The Lost Negatives. “This magical collection of never-before seen photos is a rare record of the idyllic panoramas found in some of America’s most beloved locations in the West. They represent a defining artistic statement of the country’s dramatic vistas.”
The images let us experience a wilderness that once was – and still in some places exists untarnished. The Lost Negatives represent not only exceptional art but also important, iconic scenes of how America was in the 1920s and how if we leave nature untouched, it can remain pristine and magical long into the future. This memorable journey can be experienced on www.thelostnegatives.com which allows each visitor to the site to not only witness these astonishing images but also to make their choice personal with sizing and framing options that truly bring out the dramatic beauty of these authentic landscapes, treasures of the American West.
