Adam John Torcomian (Photo: Vani Hanamirian)
Armenian artist Adam John Torcomian adapted his camera to his late mother’s lens. He looked at the world through her eyes and saw an opportunity to make an impact on the Philadelphia Armenian community. On April 1, he began working on his art collection book titled Torcomian, and on May 18 it was released to the public.
The book was a success for Torcomian, not because it sold out in less than a month, but because the first page of his book outlines a dedication to his mother. Using her lens, he saw how his work could impact people and help the community.
Torcomian graduated from Armenian Sisters Academy in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has a bachelor’s degree in Computing and Informatics: Information Systems with a minor in music from Drexel University.
Since graduating, Torcomian has focused more on his art, specializing in black and white film, paintings and drawings. His artwork is “all on paper, and I use all different types of mediums. It’s all traditional; mainly I’ll use oil paint, oil, pastel, charcoal, graphite pencils,” he said in an interview with the Weekly. Torcomian creates his artwork with purposeful lines and colors that come together on the canvas and create something beautiful. His art is thought-provoking and open to interpretation.
Torcomian’s art shows who he is on a canvas. While speaking with Torcomian, he had a warm, open approach. Torcomian has an Armenian personality, meaning he is friendly to all and eager to learn from others. He posed questions to me about my life and artistic opinions even though he was the one being interviewed.
Torcomian is filled with curiosity. He is ambitious and up for a challenge or adventure. After our interview, he ran around Philadelphia to retrieve my lost bag that was left at the restaurant where we met.
In March, Torcomian decided that he was going to make a book of his artwork. “A few of my buddies were like, ‘That’s way too ambitious,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, probably.’ But I knew I would figure it out, and I knew I wanted to do it all myself, because it was dedicated to my mom,” Torcomian said.
A painting by Torcomian (Photo: Vani Hanamirian)
On April 1, Torcomian started working on his book. “Every single day I would just do something that had to do with the book. I didn’t take one day off, which doesn’t sound like much. People work a lot harder than that, but it was definitely interesting. Even when you don’t feel like it, you still pick up the pencil.”
When making the book, Torcomian focused on the message he was trying to send with his artwork. “You want to find a way to be true to yourself, but you also want to make something interesting, so I was really happy I stuck with this. Rather than looking at it like a form, I look at it as a moment in time or an event and think about it more emotionally, rather than thinking, ‘Is that a face?’”
On May 18, 2023, Torcomian released 100 copies of his self-titled book. The final product was 74 pages, filled with photographs, paintings, text and works on paper. Torcomian did all of the page design and cover himself, which took him one month to complete.
“The art was the easy part. The hard part was figuring out the pieces that work in tandem to put in the spread of the book. The second hardest part was actually making a book in Adobe InDesign. [It was] so hard because I never learned that before,” Torcomian said.
On June 11, 2023, Torcomian sold out all 100 copies, in just under one month since it was published. Most of the sales were through word of mouth, according to Torcomian.
Torcomian dedicated the book to his late mother, Laura (DerMarderosian) Torcomian, who passed away on April 14, 2021. Laura had a passion for art, despite never pursuing it as a career. “She had all these projects that she would do in school and she had a whole portfolio, and then I found her lens,” Torcomian said. He then decided to use his mom’s old camera and has since shot several images with it. “I figured out how to adapt it to my camera, because she had an old school film camera,” he said.
Laura was involved with the Armenian Sisters Academy, from which Adam graduated. He donated 50-percent of the proceeds from the book to the Academy.
He continues to make artwork, which are available for purchase on his website. According to Torcomian, “If you’re just trying to express yourself, you can never fail, and know in your heart it doesn’t really matter what people think.”
Torcomian’s art studio (Photo: Vani Hanamirian)
Vani Hanamirian is a student from the Philadelphia area. She is currently enrolled at Emerson College with a major in journalism and a minor in marketing. She works primarily in freelance journalism, having been published in the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Moorestown Sun. Vani also works at her school newspaper, the Berkeley Beacon. She is a member of the ACYOA at Holy Trinity Armenian Church in Cheltanham, PA.