Whatever
Happened To...
ANSEL ADAMS PHOTO
This Ansel Adams photo of the Sanchez family in Wailuku, 45 years ago, came from his book called "The Islands of Hawaii."
Old Ansel Adams photo
brings local memory back
Question: What ever happened to the local people photographed about 45 years ago by Ansel Adams?The photographs were included in a recent exhibition at the Honolulu Academy of Arts.
Answer: Lenora Sanchez Ferreira, her brother and mother were photographed by the famous photographer in front of the family's old plantation home in Wailuku about 45 years ago.
Ferreira was about 10 years old when Adams approached the family about taking their pictures.
"I came home from school, and a little haole man came along and asked my mom, 'May I take your picture?' and she said, 'Sure,'" said Ferreira, who is 54 and lives in Kahului.
"He talked to us for 15 to 30 minutes. He was a nice, friendly man, not snobbish at all," Ferreira recalled.
"I didn't know he was a famous man. He was taking pictures for the bank," she said.
Her brother, Roger Sanchez, now 51 but about 7 then, said he remembers seeing the photograph published in a book commemorating First Hawaiian Bank's 100th anniversary.
Ferreira saw the photograph in the book also, but the siblings forgot about it until family members alerted them to the recent exhibition of Adams' work at the academy.
About a month ago, Ferreira's husband, James, happened to see the photograph in a television report about the exhibition.
Recognizing his wife from old family photos, he said to her, "Look, that's you!"
"I said, 'Oh, my God! How did that get there?' ... It was strange seeing myself so long ago; it was like a flashback."
Sanchez, of Hilo, said he missed the television broadcast but his daughter saw the photograph on TV. His long hair in the photograph caused his daughter to compare him to a girl, he said.
"She said, "Daddy, you looked cute; you looked like a little girl,'" he said.
The photograph shows Sanchez sitting on the porch at his mother's feet, while Ferreira was standing at the mailbox.
Their mother, Mary, died three years ago when she was 94, Sanchez said.
Both siblings said they are eager to see the photograph. Ferreira is trying to get a copy of the photo from the Adams exhibition, she said. "Anyone who wants my autograph can call me!" Sanchez joked.
Included in the exhibition also was a portrait of former Hawaii resident Marcella Choy, who is living in Michigan and declined to comment.
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