By Mac Hughes
At Imaging Spectrum, we love nothing more than shining a light on the labs and print shops that make up this industry — the ones quietly doing incredible work for their communities, year after year. This month, we sat down with the team at Linhoff Photo/The Print Refinery, of St. Louis Park, MN, a family-owned photo print shop that's been serving the Minneapolis area since the 1950s.
In that time, the business has lived through nearly every shift the industry has thrown at it — from film to digital, from darkrooms to desktop editing, from a handful of print sizes to nearly limitless formats and finishes. You can see that same evolution in the people behind the counter: a team that's grown to reflect the community it serves, while holding onto the same commitment to knowing your customer, getting the print right, and treating people like neighbors — because so often, they are. That closeness matters more than you'd think; printing is a business full of nuance, easy to miss at a big chain but impossible to overlook when your printer actually knows your work. It's also why Linhoff is quick to flag a less obvious risk of physical media: without good digital records, a disaster can wipe out photos and history that exist nowhere else.
Some things, it turns out, are worth keeping exactly as they are.
I met with one of Linhoff's key members, Lou Zurn, at the IPIC* Convention in Las Vegas in July, and asked her about what makes Linhoff's approach work, the moment they realized they'd built something special, and the challenges of modernizing without losing that personal touch.
Here's what she had to say.
Tell us about Linhoff Photo/The Print Refinery — what you do, what you offer, and what makes your team unique.
We offer a lot, from film developing to custom printing of almost every sort, and if we don't yet do it and a customer has a need, we'll try to find a way to get them what they want. As a familyowned photo print shop since the 1950s, we've seen a lot of change, but at the heart of it, it's really about serving our community in the way that they've come to expect from us. By keeping the team small, we can really build relationships with our customers and check in when they come for whatever milestone they're at in their lives — celebrating the highs and helping through the lows. From my initial interview with Jim back in 2019 I could tell how much of a part of the neighborhood Linhoff is and continues to be and I think that really is reflected in working here to. We take the time to work closely with our customers to make sure they receive close care and attention.
Was there a particular product, service, or moment that made you think, "This is really working for us — this really makes us look cool"?
I think the one big one for me is when we got approached by a national retailer headquartered here in Minneapolis to work on digitizing a portion of their corporate archive — hint: their initials are BB. The fact that they came to us for that job was really neat.
What's one thing you wish more people knew about your industry or the work you do?
Printing is a business that has a lot of nuance to it, and when you go to a big chain, a lot of that gets missed. Working closely with a printer can make a huge difference in the results you achieve. On the flip side, keeping good digital records of things that only exist in physical space is critical — disasters can strike, and if you only have a physical copy and that gets destroyed, so much information can get lost.
How has Imaging Spectrum helped Linhoff Photo succeed?
Imaging Spectrum has been our printing supply partner for quite a few years. From the paper and ink for our Fujifilm DX100 printers to the FastID Passport system that has greatly streamlined our International Passport photo workflow.
*IPI is a membership & trade association that supports photo labs and imaging outlets, worldwide. The learn more about IPI, contact Mac at mhughes@imagingspectrum.com or 972-665-6282.
