Robert R. Reid Nomination: Michael Torosian
The Board of Directors of the Alcuin Society is pleased to announce that Michael Torosian has been selected as the recipient of the 2024 Robert R. Reid Medal for Lifetime Achievement in the Book Arts in Canada.
As the proprietor of Lumiere Press, founded in 1981, Michael has been responsible for the text, design, type setting, hand printing, and hand binding of the press’s editions. Throughout the course of his career, Michael has received numerous awards and honours, including Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design in Canada and two Chalmers Arts Fellowships as well as prizes from the American Institute of Graphic Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Canada Council for the Arts. The Board of the Alcuin Society notes that these exceptional books are some of the most outstanding publications on the subject of photography ever produced.
To date, Michael has published twenty-three books exploring the work of contemporary artists like Edward Burtynsky and major historical figures such as Edward Weston, Edward Steichen, and Paul Strand - titles which have made an original contribution to our understanding of these photographers and their artistic practice. Lumiere Press titles have also included invaluable studies on related subjects such as The Black Star Collection, and the history of such venerable galleries as The Isaacs Gallery in Toronto, and the Witkin Gallery, the Howard Greenberg Gallery, and the Leo Castelli Galleries in New York.
A graduate of the Photo Arts program at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute (now Toronto Metropolitan University) Michael went on to a career as an exhibiting artist whose work is now represented in leading collections such as the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. From this background, he has brought to his writing and design sensibility a particular depth of knowledge, insight, and empathy. Both his essays and interviews now serve as valuable primary research material for these photographers and their times.
Lumiere Press books can be found in more than 200 public collections throughout the world, ranging from the Museum of Modern Art, New York to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Complete collections of Lumiere Press books are held at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland; Espaço Atlåntida: The Center for the Study of the History of Reading, Lisbon, Portugal; New York Public Library; and the International Center of Photography, New York, among many others. The Lumiere Press Archives—a repository of Michael’s entire career—were acquired by the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto in 2017.
A list of the 13 previous Robert R. Reid Award winners is located here.
A formal presentation of the Medal will take place October 24th, 2024 in Toronto. The Alcuin Society, founded in 1965, is Canada’s only not-for-profit organization devoted to the appearance of the physical book in all its aspects. Its Robert R. Reid Medal is in recognition of outstanding lifetime achievements of individuals practising the book arts in Canada. Since 1980, the Society has organized annual competitions to make awards to books published in Canada for their excellence in design, and circulated those books for exhibitions throughout the country. It has also sent them as Canada’s entries in the international book design competition held annually in Germany.
For further information contact: info [at] alcuinsociety.com
Alcuin Awards (both in Limited Editions category): 1-2, Printer Savant. 3, The Ballad of Soames Bantry. 4, our board member Chester Gryski’s Lumiere Press collection
