Mike and Janine Zaikowski, owners of Profiles. (Wendy Concannon Photography)

by Stacia Friedman

Ask any Philadelphia artist whom they trust to make prints of their original work, and they will most likely say Profiles, run by Janine and Michael Zaikowski in Chestnut Hill. These artists include a Who’s Who of area painters and photographers, including Sara Steele, Howard Watson, Paul Rickert, Maryfran Cardamone,  Dane Tilghman, Elaine Lisle and Julia Lehman. However, most locals are still unaware of the fine arts print studio and gallery that’s been on the Avenue, next to Baker Street, since 1996.

“People wander in, mistaking us for an ordinary photo copy shop,” said owner Michael Zaikowski, 64. “I tell them we’re more expensive than Staples or CVS. We are in the business of making fine art prints, not merely copies.” The majority of their demanding customers are artists who rely on the Zaikowskis’ expertise to make giclée prints of their watercolors, oils and acrylics that fully capture the beauty, color and detail of their original work.

“Giclée is the French word for spray,” said Zaikowski, “It refers to the inkjet printer method of spraying color.” But don’t mistake your home inkjet printer for the Epson printer at Profiles, the highest quality on the market. It is infinitely more accurate, costly to run and temperamental.

Operating it requires a level of expertise that Zaikowski acquired working over 34 years in the printing business. That expertise includes his wife, Janine, whom he met at an international photo expo in Germany. “Women have better color vision than men,” said Michael. “If you’re going to have someone do color proofing, it’s good to have a woman.”

The Zaikowskis, residents of Wyndmoor, opened Penguin Photo on Willow Grove Avenue in 1991. That was the same year that the term giclée was coined. Zaikowski walked me through the history of fine art printing. Remember those fine prints you hung on your dorm walls in college? Whether they were by Matisse, Picasso or Warhol, they were created by offset printing, the only method available at the time for reproducing fine art. Offset printing required making over 1,000 copies at a time, which put it out of the reach of most artists.

“In the 1960s the Iris Press, which had been used just to make proofs, was adapted to make fine art prints in small quantities. But the color wasn’t that good, and it faded,” said Michael, who credits rock star Graham Nash with making the leap into digital printing.

“Nash was an avid photographer while he was on tour. When his assistant lost a bag containing his negatives, he was desperate to make copies of his prints. But at the time, that technology did not exist. So, Graham invested a small fortune to have the Iris Press improved,” said Zaikowski, who met Nash at a photo expo in Manhattan. “Nash launched his own printing company, Nash Editions, on the west coast and I asked if I could be his east coast partner. He rejected my offer, but that didn’t stop my enthusiasm for the technology.”

“Michael came home from the expo and said, ‘We’ve got to do this,’” said Janine. As it turned out, owning an Iris Press was worse than owning a Jaguar. “It was very expensive, and we had high repair bills every month.” Like a surfer thrown by a wave, Zaikowski kept paddling back out into deeper waters, replacing each printer with a newer model.

“Eventually, Epson came out with color inkjet printers that solved the problems,” said Zaikowski, who explained that the name Profiles came from the process of creating software profiles to fine tune the printer for each run.

Just then, Chestnut Hill artist Eddie Flotte walked into Profiles. When he realized the Zaikowskis were in the middle of an interview, he quickly left but not before saying, “These are the best printers I’ve ever worked with in my entire life.” (Flotte, who resides half the year in Maui, won first prize in the watercolor category at this year’s Fall for the Arts Festival.)

Profiles also preserve heirloom family photographs. “Sometimes the image has faded, or the surface has developed cracks and tears,” explained Janine. “We take a high-resolution scan of the old photo, reverse some of the aging digitally, touch out minor blemishes, then make an archival print on fine art paper.”

More information at ProfilesStudio.com or 215-242-1404.