Peter Turnley's Paris

Many years ago, a young man from Fort Wayne, Indiana followed his muse to Paris, and stayed for a quarter of a century. Paris became home base for Peter Turnley's worldwide travels as a top-echelon photojournalist. But even at home, he never stopped working—for three decades, Peter has photographed in the streets, bistros, and bars of his adopted city, along the banks of the Seine, from high windows, wherever he found himself. He photographed rooftop vistas, forgotten details, and, always, the people—friends and strangers, the famous and the unknown—people working, playing, traveling. And, everywhere, lovers—keeping company, flirting, kissing, holding hands, walking together, drinking together, laughing.

A portion of his extensive body of black-and-white work from Paris was published in 2000 in the book Parisians, with forewords by Robert Doisneau and Edouard Boubat. Recently, Peter's been planning a second book from this large body of work.

I'm really hugely pleased to tell you that three of the most famous and most romantic of Peter Turnley's pictures of Paris will comprise TOP's last 2010 Collector Print sale, this coming fall.

The master printer
But that's not even all. Decades ago, when I first learned that Henri Cartier-Bresson didn't print his own photographs, I heard that his prints were made by a master printer living in Paris. When Josef Koudelka began exhibiting and selling prints, the same man was chosen to make the prints. The man was Voja Mitrovic. Apart from being Cartier-Bresson's printer for very close to thirty years and the main printer of Koudelka's work, Voja (the "j" is pronounced like a "y") printed for, among many others, Rene Burri, the Eugene Atget archive, Sebastiao Salgado, Marc Riboud, Edouard Boubat...

...And Peter Turnley. It turns out that Voja is one of Peter's oldest friends in Paris. How they first met is a great story, but I'll let Peter tell that story himself at a later time—in fact, we'll publish a couple of posts about Voja before the print sale starts.

Voja retired in the late 1990s (Peter also has a wonderful picture of Henri Cartier-Bresson and Josef Koudelka begging Voja not to retire, and we'll publish that here too, eventually).

The good news for us is that, as a special favor to Peter, Voja Mitrovic has agreed to make the prints for the TOP fall Collector Print sale.

Voja Mitrovic and Peter Turnley

Peter himself is a living link to the great photographers of the city. He's known or befriended a great many of the most famous names in French 20th-century photography. He started out as an assistant to the lyrical Paris photographer Robert Doisneau; he knew Cartier-Bresson, and was great friends with Edouard Boubat. Although his eye is distinctly his own, his work is very consciously part of the grand tradition of the photography of Paris.

The exact pictures we've chosen won't be revealed until the sale starts, and I'll give you all the details at a later date. The important thing to say here, now, is that the pictures represent the very best of Peter's long photographic love affair with Paris. They'll be archival fiber-based black-and-white silver prints in the standard European collector size, signed on the front by Peter and on the reverse by both Voja and Peter.

And in their own way, they'll be every bit as much of a bargain as our past sales have been—not quite as inexpensive in absolute dollars, but still very significantly less expensive than you could buy them for any other way.

We're currently planning the posts about Voja for mid-August (and you should look forward to those), and the "Peter Turnley's Paris" print sale will start sometime in the middle third of September, and run for the usual five days.

I'll keep you posted, of course.

Mike

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Original contents copyright 2010 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Comments

[MartinP]

Yoy have at least one interested potential customer !

[Mikko Moilanen]

I would surely buy all three if I were rich.

[Rob]

I bought a remaindered copy of Peter Turnley's 'The Parisians' in 2001 in Bombay, from the Strand Bookstand sale that they hold every year. I can't count how many times I looked through it in the years that I lived there, but suffice it to say that though its contents were vastly different from what I was photographing in India, nevertheless, I learnt a great deal from it.

Compositions, themes and even, in some way, content are both specific and universal enough for it to be a great teacher.

Thank you Peter, and I look forward to the sale.

[Chris Klug]

Wow. This is astounding. Thank you for putting this together.

[Don Parsons]

I'll take one, put me in the queue!

[Jeff]

Did Voja also do any of twin brother David Turnley's prints?

[Ben]

So how much do I have to save, and how long do I have to do it in? ;-)

[Mike Johnston]

Jeff,
Voja Mitrovic made the repro prints for a large number of photography books, including many of H.C.-B.'s books. He made the repro prints for both "In Times of War and Peace" and "McClellan Street," both of which are jointly authored by the two brothers, Peter and David.

Mike

[Andre Moreau]

Just viewed Peter Turnley's website. The first three images are just superb although I have to include no. 8 and No. 26 which reflects scenes only found in Paris.

Mood, emotions, feelings are words that come to mind when describing Peter's images.

[Robert Meier]

What is the 'standard European collector size'?

[Nigel]

Wooo hooooooo !

[Mike Johnston]

Ben,
The prices will be $395/$375 for the first and second prints and $995 for all three, meaning the third print is $225 if you buy the other two.

Robert,
The standard collector print size is 30x40cm (roughly 12 x 16"). The image area is somewhat smaller.

All the details will be given at a later date, closer to the sale. I didn't want to muck up this preliminary post too much by throwing in all the gritty particulars....

Mike

[Nature Lover]

Do we eget to vote? Who cares, Democracy or not.

The toy sail boat and the canal. ++++
"Le Canal St Martin, 1982"

[Richard Quirk]

middle third of September is just in time for birthday, now the missus can no longer say I'm impossible to buy for. that M9 is just a bit out of reach.

[Christopher]

I literally gasped when I read this. I am so very excited to be able to have something of Peter's in my home. His posts here, and indeed your own Mike are what inspired me to start taking photos. I am truly inspired by the dedication to Photography both of you showcase, and cannot wait to own something that I can look at as a collaboration of the two people who have inspired me so. Thank you, I cannot wait.

[Christopher]

Oh and as far as my "vote"(do note, I realize this will fall on deaf ears, but this would be my dream list)

Métro, station St. Germain-des-Prés, 1980.
Paris, 1991.
Rue de Lappe, Paris, 1984.

The last one listed is very much so my favorite photograph.

[se]

Mike, thanks for putting together another great print offer!
Will there be a finite number of prints or will they print as many as are ordered?
Susan

[Mike Johnston]

Susan,
There's no number limit on this one, just a time limit. Every order placed within the (to-be-specified) five days will be fulfilled.

Mike

[psu]

One of my favorite books. This will be a problem.

[Lambert]

Will Voja Mitrovic still be as good as he once was, considering he has not been in practice for over a decade? Chemicals, materials and equipment may have changed too. And I do not mean any disrespect at all.

[Mike Johnston]

Lambert,
As I understand it, he has never stopped printing. He just accepts no commercial clients. He prints for himself and a select few friends.

Mike

[Matthew Speicher]

Oddly enough, my wife and I will be in Paris during the middle and last thirds of September for her 30th birthday. Not sure where I'm going to find $ that isn't already dedicated to the trip but . . . I'll think of something.

[Roger Dunham]

I have 4 of Peter's Paris prints and they are very special. The photographs speak for themselves but the printing is the best I've seen. Voja may be retired from commercial work but his printing hasn't lost a step.

I do enjoy the small sail boat photograph as well as his better known Paris images.

[Player]

Could these prints be a good investment in a monetary sense?

[JeremyT]

I love Turnley's photos with their clear artistic link to the French icons of 20th century photography, but they are not of the Paris I live in which is dirty, stinking of fermenting urine, run-down, under repair, littered,graffiti covered, multiracial, homeless, and ridiculously expensive. I walked the Canal St Martin yesterday evening, and sure the young bohos were out having their picnics on one bank, but 50m away, separated by some very unromantic litter strewn water, the other bank was festooned with the tents and ramshackle constructions of the homeless streetfolk and refugees. Which all neatly links back to the recent discussion here on TOP on the Economist front cover and Weegee: a photograph really says more about what the photographer left out than what you can see and as such is intensely personal and subjective. Though I bet the prints are lovely!

[Roger Dunham]

I have seen Voja's prints of Peter's Paris work. They are quite special. If you enjoy The Parisians you will love the prints.

[Mike Johnston]

Player,
I wouldn't recommend buying them (or any photographs, really) for that reason, but it's possible they could be.

Mike

[Derek]

Wow, I'm really looking forward to this sale. I bought Parisians on a whim when I purchased McClellan Street, and I am so happy I did. They are both wonderful collections, very human and very moving. I particularly enjoy Parisians because I first started photography while I lived there (it's hard not to take pictures in that city!). Peter's photos really evoke the Paris I remember.

So, thank you, Peter, Voja, and Mike for making this available. I'll be ordering one for sure, more if I can swing it.

[david morris cunningham]

if you love peter's photographs in "parisians" you should seriously consider taking his workshop in paris. i took it back in 2005 and it inspires me to this day.
david

[John Brewton]

I have "Parisiens". My favorite is "Beatrice". Second would be P. 127, the little girl and the soccer ball. But the emotion shown in "Cafe, the Marais" on p. 141 is incredibly poignant. These would get my vote.

[Mikkelsen]

This is almost too good to be true. I have some of Voja Mitrovic's magnificent prints of Peter Turnley's marvellous work and they are stunning. Viewing photographs online is very rewarding but nothing compares to experiencing the work of a master printer close up. I have never seen any prints that could rival the beauty and quality of these.

[Larry Plummer]

Mike, the timing here is amazing. I ordered a brand new copy of the Peter's Paris book. This weekend I just finished reading Adam Gopnik's book, "Paris to the Moon" and today Peter's book arrives. Besides being an amazing book of photography, I find out that Adam Gopnik did the commentary. I'm saving my pennies for September. Thanks!