Print Sale Follow-Up

I want to thank everybody who participated in the recent print sale, Ken Tanaka's "Summer Storm, Chicago." We originally had no intention of running the sale in three parts, but the first 50 prints sold out in a mere six hours, which left a lot of people without even a reasonable opportunity for ordering. In the second sale, we offered 50 more small prints and 10 large ones; the large ones sold out in 22 hours and the second fifty small prints lasted for 28 hours, giving everyone around the world at least a theoretical opportunity to buy one if they wanted to. So the sale was a huge success....

...Not least because of the way Ken and his wife have enthusiastically worked so fast and furiously to fill all the orders. All of the prints from the 7/7 sale have already shipped; many purchasers have already received theirs. The 7/10 orders are being filled now, and Ken will begin printing the large prints next week—he's gotten as far as making the final decision on the packaging for the large prints, after investigating several options.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch house...
It rained utter torrents night before last—we got more than 4 inches in about 14 hours, and areas near us got up to 5 inches—so die Dunkelkammer is full of water again. I spent a grueling three and a half hours yesterday fixing a serious problem with my email connectivity. Or perhaps I should more accurately say, it took me three and a half hours to discover an incredibly quick and simple fix to what appeared to be a serious problem. Anyway, if you ordered a "Summer Storm" large print and you either have not heard from me or for any reason are waiting to hear more from me, please contact me—there's a possibility that some of the emails I've sent recently never got to their destinations, and a smaller but still very real possibility that emails sent to me never arrived.

The next TOP fine print sale—our last of 2010—will be coming in mid-September, and will not be limited in number. Now that Ken's sale has concluded, I'll be telling you a lot more about the September sale (who it is, what the work is, prices, etc.) this coming Monday morning. It's an incredibly cool opportunity on several levels, as I think you'll agree when you read about it.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn in 1994 by Mikhail Evstafiev

Finally, I'm going to be taking a week off in the last third of July, during which time TOP will be online but not active. Just a short vacation. Although I'm not sure I need it. Truth be told, running TOP is one of those jobs I just feel I don't need time off from—like Freud, or Solzhenitsyn (well...*), both of whom reportedly worked seven days a week. I enjoy it a lot. Still, all work and no play makes Mike a dull boy, and I don't want to start seeing Arbus twins at the end of hotel corridors if you know what I mean....

Mike

*I don't much resemble Freud or Solzhenitsyn in any way, but any excuse to run a cool black-and-white picture.

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

UPDATE on Print Sale Fulfillment from Ken: At this writing all U.S. orders for the 11x14 prints of "Summer Storm, Chicago" have been mailed (with the exception of one order who requested we delay his shipment briefly). By the end of Monday all of the international 11x14 shipments will have been mailed.

As Mike noted, the large prints will be moving out next week. I plan to ship them all by July 23rd. These will ship flat, packed in 20x24 Uline padded sandwich mailers just like the small prints. This is more expensive than using shipping tubes but it delivers a print that is immediately viewable, requiring no un-curling.

Thanks, again, to everyone who participated in this sale.

ADDENDUM: Pete Gerba's portrait of Solzhenitsyn.

Comments

[John Krill]

I would be VERY interested in how Ken's large prints were packaged for shipping.

Can this be answered in a post?

Thanks

[Hans Muus]

'Or perhaps I should more accurately say, it took me three and a half hours to discover an incredibly quick and simple fix [...]'

Mike, putting it this way, you are in good company. It reminds me of a remark by the 19th century Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. It is said it took the German friar Berthold Schwartz something like twenty years to invent gunpowder. Kierkegaard, however, points out this wasn't the case at all: Schwartz spent almost twenty years nót inventing gunpowder, until he mixed sulpher, saltpeter and charcoal in the right amounts and gunpowder was created - in twenty minutes, at most.

Have a nice vacation!

Hans

[hugh crawford]

Dunkelkammer is looking more like a Felsenhöhle.

[Rob Atkins]

"I don't want to start seeing Arbus twins at the end of hotel corridors if you know what I mean...."

Guess you won't be staying at the Overlook Hotel on your week off, then. Redrum...redrum...

How can we survive a week without you? By reading older posts, I guess. Enjoy your well-deserved break.

[Ken Tanaka]

Update on Print Sale Fulfillment
At this writing all U.S. orders for the 11x14 prints of "Summer Storm, Chicago" have been mailed (with the exception of one order who requested we delay his shipment briefly). By the end of Monday all of the international 11x14 shipments will have been mailed.

As Mike noted, the large prints will be moving out next week. I plan to ship them all by July 23rd. These will ship flat, packed in 20x24 Uline padded sandwich mailers just like the small prints. This is more expensive than using shipping tubes but it delivers a print that is immediately viewable, requiring no un-curling.

Thanks, again, to everyone who participated in this sale.

[misha]

"It is said it took the German friar Berthold Schwartz something like twenty years to invent gunpowder."

Gunpowder was invented in China, as was moveable type before Gutenberg:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Great_Inventions_of_ancient_China

[Patrick Dodds]

Happy hols Mike.

[Peter Lenz]

Mike,

Agree, any reason to post a cool, well-executed photo, black and white or colour.

This one looks even better when opened in its own window, against a black background.

Peter

[Hugh, in Winnipeg]

I got my print yesterday and I must say that it is STUNNING! Thank you Ken and Mike for making this possible.

[Hans Muus]

Misha,

I know. (Maybe we should say gunpowder and movable type were invented for the first time in China - quite a few inventions were made a number of times, in different places and in different periods. Like bow and arrow, ceramics and so on.) But I doubt if Kierkegaard could have known, and anyway that was not relevant to the point he was trying to make, which was merely a little joke about when one is doing what when trying to solve a problem.

Hans

[Sam Murphy]

Just curious, how many prints went overseas?

[jamin]

Got mine, I was amazed at how quickly it came.

The intro sheet was awesome, the print is amazing in life. You can't see buckingham fountain very well on the screen. So glad I got this :-)

Gotta find some money for next months now :p

[Ken Tanaka]

Sam,
It's been fascinating to see the national diversity of buyers for the "Storm" print.

From the first 11x14 offer there were 15 non-U.S. buyers, of which 4 were Canadian.

From the second 11x14 offer there were 11 non-U.S. buyers of which 3 were Canadian.

The "overseas" orders really spanned the globe: Japan, Malaysia, Australia, England, Ireland, Belgium, Switzerland, and Germany were all represented.

Ken