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Լuther Simjian was born in Aintab (Cilicia) on January 28, 1905. He lost his mother when he was only a few months old; his father later remarried and had two daughters. The family fled to Aleppo during the Genocide and only returned to Aintab in 1920 during the brief French mandate over Cilicia. Simjian’s stepmother and half-sisters were killed in Marash. Eventually he escaped to Beirut and then came to the United States via France at the end of 1920. He first settled in New Haven, Connecticut, where he lived with an uncle and graduated from Booth Preparatory School.

Simjian began working as a technician at the photography lab of the Yale School of Medicine. In 1928 he founded and became the first director of the photography department, which he headed until 1934.