Fans Seek to Resurrect Polaroid Film

Historic Henry Peter Bosse images show river in 1880s

(NEWSER) - Few have heard of Henry Peter Bosse, but his 19th-century photographs have earned a home in a federal vault—and a single album is worth $4.5 million. Sotheby's recently appraised the album, which illustrates the changing Mississippi River in the 1880s, and its value had quadrupled over 20 years. But the album's history isn't so illustrious: It spent more than 50 years on a dredge vessel where it appears to have been barely noticed, the Star Tribune reports. More»

(NEWSER) - One of the most famous war photos of all time was a fake, according to Spanish newspaper El Periodico. The paper says its investigation into Robert Capa's Spanish Civil War "falling soldier" photo—which appears to show a shot militiaman at the moment of death—concluded that the photo was actually taken 30 miles away from any fighting and therefore must have been staged, Artdaily reports. More»

Little Addison Logan buys pic of dead family member by chance

(NEWSER) - A boy's visit to a local garage sale has nearly brought back a lost family member from the dead, the Wichita Eagle reports. Addison Logan went garage-sale shopping last week because he'd broken his arm and couldn't ride his dirt bike as usual. He picked up a "pretty cool" Polaroid camera for $1, brought it home, and pulled out the cartridge. Inside was a photo that he showed to grandma: of her then-teenaged son, Scott, with his girlfriend—about 10 years before he died in a car accident. More»

The photos had a sort of poetry about them

(NEWSER) - The last frames of Kodachrome film have largely been developed, yet another milestone in the transition from analog to digital, but this is no cause for celebration for Matt Zoller Seitz. Kodachrome photos had "something truly special" about them, he writes at Salon . "The dyes and emulsions produced an effect comparable to Technicolor motion picture film." The resulting photos were "luminous and warm but not garish; in some inexpressible way, they seemed to capture the sensation of remembering the past, fixing nostalgia along with people and places." More»

Fresno Met trying to sell prints to pay off debt

(NEWSER) - Ansel Adams’ family is suing the bankrupt Fresno Metropolitan Museum over its attempts to auction off six prints the photographer donated before he died. The museum closed in January and is now furiously trying to sell off artwork to pay off its estimated $4 million in debt. But Adams' relatives say the “declaration of gift” the family signed when it handed over the prints prohibited such sales. More»