Page 8 - Allisons Magazine Issue #91

Armed only with paper and ink, Chris Fritton left his job at a printshop
in New York to reinvent the notion of a traveling printer. Dubbing himself

the Itinerant Printer, he’s traveled across the country visiting printshops,
forging lasting connections with fellow printers and creating exciting
collaborative artwork.

Where did you grow up? it was just o!set printing and folding
I grew up in Lockport, New York, a machines—no letterpress.
small city just north of Bu!alo. My
CHASING father worked on the Erie Canal, as did What is the Western New York
I before becoming a printer. I guess the
Book Arts Center, and what was
© Lara Rose Cenovski muddy canal water in my blood has your role there?
INK What is your training? printshop where members can pay for
slowly been replaced by ink.
WNYBAC is a community-based
studio time and use shared equipment.

maintaining the letterpress equipment,
training in art or design; all of
interview with chris fritton Believe it or not, I have no formal As Studio Director, I was responsible for
written by shelley goldstein my background is in philosophy, teaching workshops, printing
photography by chris fritton, unless noted
writing, and English. I have degrees commercial jobs, and producing creative
in philosophy, poetics, and English content for the earned income model
literature earned at the State University (business-speak for making posters and
of New York at Bu!alo and the cards to sell).
University of Maine at Orono, both
hotbeds of creative writing and What is a modern tramp printer?
poetic practice. Is there history behind this term?
How did you come up with the name
What are some notable past jobs? Itinerant Printer?
I piloted boats on the Erie Canal for I’d been letterpress printing for over a
over a decade! During the ride, I’d also decade, and the deeper I slid into the
regale passengers with tales about the craft, the more I’d gather from historical
history and lore of one of the world’s texts that I read. One thing that
most important waterways. When I was continued to come up in my reading
eighteen, I worked one night shift at a was this idea of a “tramp printer,” or a
company that tested scuba regulators “hobo printer,” or what other people just
before realizing factory work wasn’t for called itinerant printers or “travelers.”
me. I was fascinated by the machinery "ese tramp printers were men (and
and the process but couldn’t bear very occasionally women) who had
standing in one place for eight hours. a union card from the International
I left at lunch. I also worked at the Typographical Union. With their union
printshop in college for a semester, but card, they were able to travel across the

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