Hidden Treasures: Ron Stoner

Ron Stoner negatives at SHACC.

An exciting new collection of slides, negatives, and prints taken by celebrated surf photographer Ron Stoner arrived at SHACC this month. The collection comes courtesy of Ron Stoner’s niece, Amy Turpin, and several other surviving family members. The various photographs and ephemera were entrusted to the curators at SHACC’s photo archive collection for examination, registration, & digitization and will soon join the hundreds of Stoner images already preserved for research & educational use at SHACC.

Ron Stoner prints at SHACC.

Stoner’s images from the 1960s are breathtakingly saturated, dynamic, and instantly recognizable staples of surf culture. Following tragic psychiatric struggles, Ron Stoner went missing in 1977 and was declared legally deceased in 1994. His body of work, though limited to a smaller window of time than many of his contemporaries, will live on to inspire countless other photographers & surfers alike.

SHACC plans to display a selection of these and other works from Stoner’s collection in a future exhibit, as well as host surviving family members for a panel discussion about his life and photography. SHACC will also honor the family’s request to set aside a portion of the revenue generated by licensing Stoner’s images as a scholarship endowment for young sports photographers.