[Winter 2025]

Bound Greatness
by Michel Hardy-Vallée

The retrospective exhibition Printer Savant: Lumiere Press and the Art of the Photo Book¹ shone a light on the work of Canadian book maker Michael Torosian, whose Lumiere Press imprint has produced some of the most meticulously printed books by major photographers. For publications by Dorothea Lange, Paul Strand, Gordon Parks, Edward Burtynsky, and many others, Torosian has handcrafted limited­­­-edition volumes using high-quality materials, state-of-the-art reproductions, and traditional equipment. The Greenberg Gallery has collaborated with him for more than thirty-five years now, and the exhibition offered an opportunity to see vintage photographs alongside their printed counterparts and to gain some insight into his practice. The exhibition was the latest in a string of honours bestowed on him, including a lifetime achievement award in the book arts from the Alcuin Society and major acquisitions by university libraries, such as the Bodleian in Oxford and the Thomas Fisher in Toronto.

Torosian comes from a family that put self-sufficiency at the top of their priorities. Modernity and progress impoverished plenty of people during the twentieth century, and knowledge of manual labour was often the best insurance policy against catastrophe. Torosian knows his way around a tool belt, but he has invested his energies in building books. He was self-taught in photography before he studied it at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute (now Toronto Metropolitan University). His 1970s street work is highly reminiscent of that of Dave Heath, and he has done a good series of studio portraits of important Canadians from the arts scene, such as Joyce Wieland and Ralph Greenhill. One of his early publications was the Signature 3 portfolio for the National Film Board. Although he had a career as a portrait photographer, he fired his own shot at greatness by founding Lumiere Press. His books engage with a print culture beyond the umbrella of the photobook – one to which, I believe, more photographers should pay attention.

[ Complete issue, in print and digital version, available here: Ciel variable 128 – CHANGE OF SCENE ]
[ Complete article in digital version available here: Michael Torosian, Bound Greatness – Michel Hardy-Vallée]

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Michel Hardy-Vallée is a historian of photography and Visiting Scholar at the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art, Concordia University. His research is concerned with photography books, visual narration, interdisciplinary practices, and the archive, in the contexts of Quebec and Canada. He is currently working on a monograph about John Max.

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