THE HISTORY AND MISSION OF THE FISHER PRESS


The Fisher Press was founded in 1976 by the late Richard M. A. Benson as a photographic editions shop in Newport, Rhode Island. Richard (known to many as "Chip") ran the press for a number of years before moving on to teach photography, and the history of photographic printing techniques, at the Yale University School of Art — retiring as its Dean in the late 2000s. 


In 2000, Chip's nephew, Christopher, assumed the Fisher Press imprint after having worked for his uncle while in college in the 1980s, and also later worked with Chip's colleague, the renowned book designer Eleanor Morris Caponigro, in New Mexico. The younger Benson and Ms. Caponigro have since collaborated on various book and print projects. 


Since 2006, the Fisher Press has been located in Santa Fe, where it specializes in digital edition printing, pre-press photographic imaging, and the design and publishing of artists' books, many of them about photographers. 


Numerous Fisher Press limited-edition handmade books are in the special collections libraries at Stanford, Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth and Brigham Young Universities, as well as in the Harrison collection at the San Francisco Public Library, in the special collections of The Rhode Island School of Design, The National Gallery of Art, The New Mexico History Museum, and the Redwood Library and Atheneum in Newport, Rhode Island. 


The Press provides superior book design, pre-press digital imaging services, and digital archival ink printing to artists of all kinds, but with a special interest and skill in working with traditional darkroom photographers.