Reader Print Sale: Chester Williams

[UPDATE Tuesday, May 21, 2 p.m. Eastern Time: Sale has ended. Thanks to all of you who ordered! Hope the rest of you enjoyed the posts.]

Chester Williams, The Goodbye Kiss

Our fine print sale for this Spring is literally a picture of...concrete. Yet it manages to convey emotional content too. It's called "The Goodbye Kiss," and I'm guessing you can see why! It's sort of a local folk landmark on the Caribbean island nation of St. Lucia, in the Atlantic Ocean.

Chester Williams is a TOP reader who submitted this to our Baker's Dozen feature (a portfolio of readers' pictures) called "It Must Be Color." Chester, who lives in St. Lucia, is a retired professional photographer who loves to enter photo contests and has won many honors over the years.

"The Goodbye Kiss" an example of pareidolia, a fancy word for the skill our brains have of detecting human faces in random information. We are highly sensitized to faces and tend to be inclined to see them. We can see a face in a curved line and two dots, a chimney flanked by two windows, or in the clouds or whorls of wood grain. We know this is accidental, but we can read feelings and tenderness in the touching gesture. We are suggestible, and the figuration suggests—in the way that art often does. Only in this case it's natural, not intentional.

How our sales work
Our sales are a little different than most. We take orders first, for a strictly limited time, in this case five days. Then we close the orders and the printmaker can go to work fulfilling the order. I started doing it this way back in the '90s at Photo Techniques magazine, when the prints would be made in darkrooms. It makes it possible to offer prints at low prices for the buyer while still allowing the photographer a nice payday.

The sale ends next Tuesday at 2 p.m. New York time, 11 a.m. California time. That's 7 p.m. in London and 4 a.m. Wednesday in Sydney.

To order
You can buy either of two sizes—large or small. The full-sized print is 13.3x20" on 17x22" paper, for $220. The small prints are 8x12" with a 1-inch border for $110. Shipping cost is $15 to anywhere in the World, for either size.

I had a bit of trouble arranging this sale, because the bookkeeper I had lined up decided she didn't want the job after all. Then Ctein offered to help, and that saved the day. So he'll be taking orders and doing the bookkeeping (and thanks for that—Yr. Hmbl. Ed. doesn't have the gene) but he won't be making the prints. The prints will be made by Mike and Janine Zaikowski of Profiles Fine Art Printmaking Studio in Philadelphia. (They also printed "Precipitation" by Gordon Lewis, for those of you who have those.) They will not be signed, as shipping from Philly to St. Lucia is slow.

Tomorrow I'll ask Chester to introduce himself, and then on the weekend I'll pass along the backstory about the subject of the picture—there's a lot to it, and it's a fascinating and touching tale.

One final note: There's a reason why Chester submitted this picture to a juried show called "It Must Be Color." As I mentioned earlier, the print is lovely—the colors in it are shimmery, subtle, and pleasing. The JPEG doesn't quite do the colors justice.

The print does.

Thank you from all of us—Chester, myself, Mike and Janine, and Ctein—we hope you like it. Please do pass the word about the picture and the sale to anyone you think might like to look at it.

Mike

P.S. Oh, I really should have added that this is entirely a "by popular demand" fine print offer. A number of readers asked for it, and that's why it's happening. But I would like to do more reader's print sales in the future. The large print option was also a reader's suggestion.

Original contents copyright 2019 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.

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

Andy: "I've been waiting some time for this one. Large print ordered. So glad you decided to add the larger size."

Chester Williams replies: "@Andy...I was so worried that I would not sell any, so your message, first indication of a sale, was a Godsend! Thanks...and also to Scott, Mike, Ctein and others for their guidance, assistance and comments. Sorry if I am excited...but I am!!"

Comments

[Andy]

I've been waiting some time for this one. Large print ordered. So glad you decided to add the larger size.

[Eolake]

I’m promoting it on Facebook.

[KeithB]

Another example of pareidolia is the house in "The Amityville Horror." with the two eye-like windows.

[Scott]

Small print ordered (only because wall space is getting tight in my condo). So excited about this one. Such a great example of pareidolia, evoking so many feelings while being beautiful at the same time. Can't wait to see the subtle colors in the print.

[Michael Matthews]

I think the single print offer drawn from readers’ work is a great idea. As are the sizes and the choice of a first-class printer to handle production.