06/12/2023
Lumpyhead, by the New York City photographer John Taggart, was printed on a Risograph MZ1090.
The risograph is a kind of printer—technically a Japanese stencil-duplicator. Think screen printing in a copy machine. Originally designed for corporate offices, artists re-claimed the risograph for DIY zines and self-publishing. The medium is more typically used by illustrators, rather than photographers, but there is a small community using the risograph to print and publish photographic materials and photo books.
The risograph is an imprecise machine, seemingly with a mind of its own. Perfect registration is difficult, the ink never fully dries, the colors shift. A good printer needs to lean into these ideas and make decisions on press, as they say, to best translate a book's rendering of photos.
Most people see a photobook and do not realize the amount of labor that goes into a publication, the many steps that make a book into its final form. Lumpyhead's printing was a labor of love, printed in a full CMYK-adjacent screening method using Blue, Fluorescent Pink, Black and Yellow. This book called for 23 unique sheets, printed on the front and back. The machine prints two-colors and a time, so each sheet had to go through the machine four times! After printing, the pages need to be collated, trimmed down, bound and trimmed again for its final cut.
It was made completely by hand in Brooklyn, NY by our press, Tommy Riso, and published by LOOK.
