Personal ramblings on photography
In Kodak bankruptcy reorganisation, the announcement of Ektachrome being discountinued mark the end of the Kodak slide film, after discontinuing Kodachrome in 2009 and stopping development at the end of 2010. The won’t stop producing E-6 chemistry though.
This is very hard on slide film shooters. Now the only source for color reversible film is Fujifilm. Time to stock up.
A small documentary “Kodachrome 2010” by Xander Robin, with an interview of Dwayne’s Photo lab manager and how it came to an end.
The video was taken down on YouTube due to a copyright claim.
Robert Cohen found his last roll of Kodachrome and went to the Missouri fair to shoot it ; then drove down to Dwayne’s to get it processed, anxiously waiting to see if the film had any picture on it.
My biggest regret is to not have shot Kodachrome more often. I think that the 3 weeks turn around in France was part of what turned me off.
Business Insider has an exhibit of color pictures of Manhattan from the 1940’s and 1960’s by amateur photographer Charles W. Cushman. The collection is maintained by Indiana University. All shot on Kodachrome.
NPR has a piece titled How Much Longer Can Photographic Film Hold On?:
At the turn of the 21st century, American shutterbugs were buying close to a billion rolls of film per year. This year, they might buy a mere 20 million, plus 31 million single-use cameras — the beach-resort staple vacationers turn to in a pinch, according to the Photo Marketing Association
Basically, film is not dead, but it is far beyond in term of market. The biggest risk for film is not that big companies stop producing it but rather that they hoard the technology to make it. Agfa Scala was the first example, albeit salvaged by the makers of DR5, still repeating the mistake. Polaroid is the second example, and the Impossible Project did the impossible with it. Kodachrome is the third and hardest example: a very complicated and undocumented process without any alternative. I believe slide film E-6 will be next. Time will tell.
Kodachrome is dead, long live to Kodachrome.
Yesterday, December 30th 2010, was the last day to have Kodachrome processed at the last lab operating in the world, Dwayne’s Photo, in Parsons Kansas. Rolls had to reach them by noon that day to be processed, after 75 years.
Steve McCurry, the legendary photographer from the National Geographic got given by Kodak the last roll they produced in 2009. You can see shots from his last roll.
It is sad to see this happening, but ever falling sales of film made the enterprise even less viable. I just wish there was a company that was able to manufacture and process a Kodachrome-like film in the future, as it was the best color slide film, with unbelievable archival quality, unrivaled by the E-6 chemistry based slide films.
I just regret to not have shot enough of it, none of them in America.
The Denver Post Photo Blogs has an exhibit called “Captured: America in Color 1939-1943”.
Some stunning images taken between 1939 and 1943 depicting America, in Color. When I think about that period, I most of the time imaging black & white, because it was the predominant form of photography at the time. But color film, was already available, even to the general public.
That’s the kind of photography I love, depicting people, in everyday situations, to form our memories (of the past).
Via Boing Boing.