Aaron Vincent Elkaim show featured in the National Post

0

Readmore

Posted 23 May ,2012

Category In The News

Pikto featured in The Grid

0

FRI MAY 18, 2012
PLACES

How’s Business?: Pikto

We check in on Toronto's preeminent digital-photography darkroom to see how they've stayed ahead of the curve in an ever-evolving industry.

BY: IAN WORANG

While working as a photographer in New York City around the turn of millennium, André Souroujon noted a lack of professional-quality printing services positioned to take advantage of the emerging dominance of digital technology. “I’ve been a photographer for many years. I was a commercial photographer in Toronto and then I moved to New York for about six years doing editorial photography—everything from Fortune Magazine to The Village Voice,” he recalls, “And then I decided when the whole digital wave was coming that there wasn’t really anything dedicated to digital photography—the future lab, so to say.”

Moving back to Toronto, Souroujon opened Pikto (55 Mill) in Toronto’s Distillery District in 2003, offering everything from printing services and workshops on fashion photography to digital-darkroom and studio rentals. While Pikto is focussed very much on the digital aspect of photography—”most of the professionals have moved to digital; actually, just about all of them,” he says—that doesn’t mean film has completely vanished.

“We do printing and scanning and we do process black-and-white as well,” says Souroujon. “But there are big issues with processing, because the machines are not meant to run a few rolls; they’re meant to run a lot of rolls in bulk. That’s why we stopped doing C-41 [colour negative film] about a year and a half ago.”

The people who are still taking advantage of film tend to fall into one of two groups, say Souroujon. “There’s some people that are maybe starting—some students or younger people that want to experiment who have never tried film,” he says. “And definitely there’s fine-arts and portrait photographers who are still hanging on to their film. I think it’ll always be there for certain people. It has a certain magic to it. But I don’t see a lot people doing 100 per cent of their work on film—it’s going to be more and more rare to find people doing that.”

Souroujon believes the reason some people are still drawn to film isn’t so much the way it looks—which he thinks can be largely emulated digitally at this point—but the idea of producing a tangible object. “That’s maybe what people kind of miss these days: the end product. It becomes a real object,” he says. “A lot of the printing we do is chromogenic prints, which are basicallysilver halide prints. So even though it’s digital, it’s still very much in the tradition of photographic prints.”

This is further reflected in the way even the casual photographer chooses to print select images. “It’s become different now,” says Souroujon. “Instead of printing thousands of prints a year, like you used to with film, what they’re doing now is, if they really like an image, they want to put it on their wall or give it as a gift. There’s all sorts of new things you can do, including canvas wraps and plexi mounts, and you can do photo books as well. With our photobook software, you can actually connect and make an Instagram photobook. It’s really for when you have a special image and the screen doesn’t give you that feel. The end product of photography is still some sort of object.”

With CONTACT in full swing this month, an especially busy period for Pikto’s lab and digital darkroom has come to an end, but the in-store gallery is still operating at full tilt. “There’s about 500 shows around the city [during CONTACT], and we print a lot of them and frame a lot of them, so it gets extremely busy in March and April,” says Souroujon. “Then May tends to be more people coming to the gallery rather than producing work.”

Pikto’s gallery—currently displaying Aaron Vincent Elkaim’s “A Co-existence: Lost in the Wake of Zionism”—is an essential component of the business for Souroujon. “The gallery is where photography is meant to be. It’s all about the art of photography and the emotion of photography.

“So, to just do products and services was one thing, but we wanted to also feature photographers. We’ve seen a lot of photographers develop their careers going through Pikto, and it’s one of the most rewarding things that we do, for sure.”

Readmore

Posted 18 May ,2012

Category In The News

Mike Berube's "Foreclosure" in Photo Life Blog

0

Check out their blog post here.

Readmore

Posted 11 Apr ,2012

Category In The News

"Belgrade House" and Vuk Dragojevic

0

Readmore

Posted 10 Mar ,2012

Category In The News

Pikto in the Toronto Star

0

The Star's Steve Russel recommends Pikto Photobooks in his recent article on new photography products.

"Photo books are quickly replacing the photo album and scrap books....high-end photo-finishing stores, such as Pikto... offer software and a multitude of book sizes and shapes."

Click here to read the full article.

Readmore

Posted 05 Jan ,2012

Category In The News

Pikto Top Pick Winner in NY Times

0

Anastasia Taylor-Lind's winning entry in Pikto's Top Pick competition has been featured in the NYTimes Sunday Review. Click here to see the slideshow with even more images from her series The National Womb.

Anastasia's work will be on display at the Pikto Gallery from January 5, 2012 - February 29, 2012. The opening reception will be held Saturday, January 21, 2012 from 6pm-10pm. Come on down to meet Anastasia, discuss her work and meet other influential members of the photographic community.

RSVP today!

Readmore

Posted 12 Dec ,2011

Category In The News

National Post - Mandy Keeping

0

Readmore

Posted 04 May ,2011

Category In The News

Globe and Mail - Jade Lee Portelli

0

Current Pikto Exhibition 'Night Works' by Jade Lee Portelli, who is also a member of the Pikto team, got the thumbs up from reviewer R.M Vaughan. Well done and great work Jade.

Readmore

Posted 20 Nov ,2010

Category In The News

Toronto Star Likes 'Scalpay Last of the Fishermen' Exhibition at Pikto.

0

Readmore

Posted 14 May ,2010

Category In The News

Jesse Louttit, "Employees Only"

0

Great turnout for Jesse Louttit's opening reception at Pikto Friday December 11th.

Also rave reviews. Hear Jesse talk about his work on CBC radio, http://www.cbc.ca/metromorning/2009/12/15/

The National Post listed the show as top 5 in Toronto this week.

Heather Morton commented on her blog that "Employees Only" is one of her faves!

Well done Jesse.

Readmore

Posted 17 Dec ,2009

Category In The News

Pikto inc

In The News

Aaron Vincent Elkaim show featured in the National Post

Pikto featured in The Grid

Mike Berube's "Foreclosure" in Photo Life Blog

"Belgrade House" and Vuk Dragojevic

Pikto in the Toronto Star

Pikto Top Pick Winner in NY Times

National Post - Mandy Keeping

Globe and Mail - Jade Lee Portelli

Toronto Star Likes 'Scalpay Last of the Fishermen' Exhibition at Pikto.

Jesse Louttit, "Employees Only"

My Points

Join Us

Follow Us

Recent Activity

PHOTOBOOKS

PRINTS

PRO SERVICES

GALLERY

WORKSHOPS

YOUR ACCOUNT

Pikto, Inc.

Store Hours