Michael Torosian on Photography and his Lumiere Press

Lumiere Press is the private press of Michael Torosian. In the fine press tradition, the books are composed in lead, hand printed and hand bound. The press is devoted exclusively to photography, and each book aspires in its concept, graphic design, and bookmaking craftsmanship to be the manifestation of its artistic content. The shop's first printing press was acquired in 1981, and in 1986 the publishing program was launched with the publication of Edward Weston: Dedicated to Simplicity.

I met with Michael in his Toronto workshop. We talk here, among other things, about Edward Weston and his son Cole, simplicity, abstraction, the homage series, self-education, the octavo format, Mohawk letterpress paper, harmony, marketing, Aaron Siskind, modernist photography, idols, completionists, Walter Gretzky, The Complete Photographer, Alfred Stieglitz, composition, the photo album, the book as the medium of photography, Glenn Goluska, privates presses as the vision of individuals, Stan Bevington, antiquarian book dealers, Buffalo NY, instincts and good taste, Printing for Poetry, matching typefaces to the times, recording conversations, a 10-zillion-photograph-a-minute universe; ambition, research and Saul Leiter; Eduard Steichen, and the Lumiere Press archive at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library.