Peter Turnley Paris Print Sale III Starts Now!

Peter Turnley, Couples along the Seine, Paris, 2013

A lot to talk about in a short space today.

First and most importantly, the announcement of our third sale of Paris prints—these three beautiful pictures taken by photographer Peter Turnley and printed by master printer Voja Mitrovic. The pictures are all from Peter's new book, French Kiss: A Love Letter to Paris, which starts shipping in one week (and is more than half sold out already). 

About our sales (I need to explain this again because many visitors drop by The Online Photographer for the first time just for our sales): We use an unusual marketing model that benefits both producers and purchasers. The sale lasts for a short "window" of time—just five days—during which we collect orders. Money in hand, the prints can then be made to fulfill the orders. Because the prints can be produced in volume—each already sold—the price can be kept low for the buyer but the photographer still makes money. Win-win.

Canal St. Martin Sailboat, Paris, 1982

And the 20% that is TOP's "gallery fee" helps keep TOP on the rails...so, win-win-win.

(Another nice side-effect of that is that fully 80% of the proceeds goes to the photographers, who, after all, deserve it. Compare that to the 30–40% photographers get to keep when selling through conventional galleries. Not that there's anything wrong with conventional galleries; I like them too.)

More about these pictures in a moment, but first, I also want to announce that TOP has a new storefront, or Web shop, or sales page, or e-commerce portal, or whatever you want to call it: www.topprintsandbooks.com. It's here, and this is where you go to place your order for these prints. Hopefully we've accommodated everyone's needs both externally and internally...you can pay by credit card (VISA, MasterCard, or Discover), by PayPal, or by sending a personal check or money order in the mail. PayPal offers standard currency conversion for the convenience of International customers (who—counting Canadians—make up 45 to 55% of TOP's regular audience). Please do bear in mind this is a new and as-yet untested system, so please have patience if we encounter any turbulence!

Eiffel Tour Tango, Paris, 2012

Now about these pictures.

The book French Kiss collects more than 40 years of pictures of "the love of life" in Paris, and is Peter's second book of Paris pictures (the first was Parisians).

He has used nearly every model of Leica film rangefinder for these pictures. But life moves on. In common with artists, photographers are most interested in the work they're doing now. And recently, Peter has been photographing more than ever in Paris, using modern digital rangefinder Leicas and sharing the results with his large followings on the Internet.

Two of these pictures are recent photographs made with the M9 and M Monochrom, which appear on the front and back cover of the new book ("Couples along the Seine" was taken just a few months ago, in August). To ensure consistency with his past work, they're printed on traditional fiber-base paper, from 4x5-inch internegatives, by Voja Mitrovic. Voja (pronounced "Voya") who printed the majority of Henri Cartier-Bresson's prints for three decades of Henri's life, still does a very limited amount of work for a select group of the world's top photographers.

Henri Cartier-Bresson and Josef Koudelka at Voja Mitrovic's retirement party, good-naturedly pleading with him not to go

The important thing to Peter is to maintain the continuity of his work in Paris, and its connection to the great French photographers of the city—many of whom he knew and were his friends. He also wants to keep intact the connection to the great tradition of the fine print indelibly associated with those legendary French photographers and the great Paris labs.

Pierre Gassmann in his famous Paris lab, with Peter Turnley

These prints normally sell for $1,200 each as 16x20's. Our TOP sale prints are smaller—12x16 inches (30.5x40.6cm), the traditional European collector print size—but sell for one-third as much. They are signed on the front by Peter and on the back by Peter and Voja. These prints will not be offered at this size or for our prices except in this sale.

Note that you will receive a small discount it you purchase two prints and a large discount for a third. These savings will be applied to your order at checkout. The price for one print is $395, two are $770, and all three prints are $995.

In addition, as a special thank-you for TOP readers who buy all three prints, Peter will include a free, signed copy of the new book French Kiss. (If you've already pre-ordered the book, you can email him and cancel your pre-order if you're getting the free copy.) The book you'll receive is the First Edition in the custom slipcase, which will cost $79 starting November 1st. (If you decide not to buy any prints but would like the book, you can click here.)

We hope you like our three choices. This sale ends in five days, at sunset next Monday. As soon as the sale ends, Voja will get to work making the prints. Early orders will be shipped first. We hope everyone's order will arrive before Christmas, but please order early if you want to make sure.

Click here to order

Vive Paris—Vive la Photographie!

Mike

Original contents copyright 2013 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
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Comments

[Ari]

How about a TOP print sale with that photo of Cartier-Bresson and Koudelka with Mitrovic?

[Stan B.]

Love that sailboat (not that the others ain't great)!

[Eric Rose]

Congratulations on the e-commerce website. Looks great and takes you to the next level with style.

[Manuel]

This could be my bid to win the Stupidest Comment Of The Year (SCOTY) award, but here it goes:
I'm not ordering any of these prints. They're excellent, of course, but they fail to convey me 'that something'. However, I'd gladly pay the price of the three prints for one of Turnley's picture with the kids inside a car trunk. (Which I believe also features in Turnley's book.) It's my favourite among Peter Turnley's photographs, though I'm willing to concede it may not be his best.
Secondly, my brain almost exploded when I saw two of my favourite photographers in the same picture - Josef Koudelka and Henri Cartier-Bresson. My first photography book was a small album of Josef K.'s pictures; it was a birthday gift from a close friend. The little album, which is a french pocket edition, made quite an impression on me. It was really nice to see these two geniuses together.

[Bob Smith]

My order is being placed Friday morning as soon as a bank deposit clears!
Very excited about the book (3 books now actually), the photographer, the prints and the printer.

I wish I'd been aware of TOP when the second Turnley print sale occurred. The ones being offered for this sale are beautiful and fitting but the ones offered in II really knock me out.

Oh well, I just have to make sure to read TOP every day of my life....;^)

Bob

[Jim B.]

Mike, I ordered a print and the e-commerce site seemed to work fine. Maybe you would like a job in Health and Human Services?

[Sarge]

Handsome portal, Mike.

Tight but airy layout. Got TOP's distinct livery, too. Which give it a classic look: minimalist and traditional at the same time.

I also googled topprintsandbooks. Guess what? It returned only one result: The TOP e-portal itself!

Unfortunately, I couldn't give it a test drive. Can't afford a lens and a print between now and Christmas. Which gives away the stage of photography I'm at now. (sg)

But I'm definitely going for the book.

Congratulations, Mike!

[Bill Laidley]

The store seems to be working - I had some difficulty using my Australian credit card, so fell back on PayPal and a Canadian credit card. I'm probably your worst case for complexity...

[Bob Smith]

Mike, a question on ordering. To get the three print discount does it have to be one print each of the three pictures or can it be three prints of one individual picture?

Thanks, Bob