Insert Lame “Mama Don’t Take My Kodachrome Away” Reference Here
by John Paczkowski
Posted on June 22, 2009 at 2:40 PM PT
With 70 percent of the its revenue now coming from digital sales and the unstoppable transition from analog to digital all but complete, Eastman Kodak (EK) is retiring Kodachrome. Seems “a fraction of one percent of Kodak’s film sales” just wasn’t enough to keep the venerable old color film around for a little while longer.
Thankfully, we’ll always have that wonderful Paul Simon song by which to remember it.
Kodachrome was on the market for 74 years–all those birthday parties and National Geographic covers. But you can’t stop progress, as Steve McCurry, who snapped what may well be the most famous Kodachrome photo ever (above), notes.
“The early part of my career was dominated by Kodachrome, and I reached for that film to shoot some of my most memorable images,” said McCurry. “While Kodachrome Film was very good to me, I have since moved on to other films and digital to create my images. In fact, when I returned to shoot the ‘Afghan Girl’ 17 years later, I used Kodak’s E100VS film to create that image, rather than Kodachrome Film as with the original.”
[Image credit: Steve McCurry via Wikipedia]
Comments
Interesting that the film most associated with a song was created by a pair of musicians, Leopold Mannes and Leopold Godowsky.
I’ll miss Kodachrome. In fact, I have been missing it for six years already, since I went all digital.
I learned how to shoot color with the film in ‘79. And I shot a whole semester for the photo essay class with a $300 box of PKR-64 in journalism school. Great discipline to shoot with such a slow film.
They’ll be the last slides to fade away.
Posted by Eric Welch at June 23rd, 2009 at 7:49 am