Ann Sanfedele wrote: >Bob Shell wrote: >> >> On May 1, 2006, at 11:53 PM, Paul Stenquist wrote: >> >> > As far as I know, none of the great photographers who printed >> > limited editions destroyed their negatives. There is something >> > intrinsically wrong with that notion. .... >> >> Brett Weston, considered a great photographer by many, burned all of >> his negatives. Some others have punched holes in the negs with paper >> punches. A few have put X marks on them with permanent markers. > >God _ I didn't know that... guess I'll take good care of my >poster :) > >That is really awful, in a way ...yet. when I see >exhibitions of the work of dead photographers printed by someone still >alive and, even scarier, selected by someone still alive - well, one can >regret but sympathize.
Lewis Hines would have saved everyone a lot of trouble if he'd marked up his negatives like this! A few years ago there was a huge fuss because someone had made prints from his negs and passed them off as original prints made by Hines himself. Eventually the culprit agreed to buy back tons of the prints he'd sold... without admitting any wrongdoing, IIRC. I have a couple of friends/acquaintances at RIT and the George Eastman House who had some involvement in the investigation that exposed (pardon the pun) this affair. They hinted to me that the non-authenticity of the photos was even more obvious than the press accounts portrayed it.
