July 24, 2010

End of an era - Kodachrome

I have been shooting for the last 40 years and up until the time I went fully digital, I always shot Kodachrome 25. Gorgeous stuff... From the Wichita (Kansas) Eagle:
Last Kodachrome roll processed in Parsons
Freelance photojournalist Steve McCurry, whose work has graced the pages of National Geographic, laid 36 slides representing the last frames of Kodachrome film on the light board sitting on a counter in Dwayne's Photo Service in Parsons.

He placed a lupe - a magnifier that makes it easier to view film - over one frame and took a closer look at the film.

McCurry told Dwayne's vice president Grant Steinle how he had chosen to shoot the last roll of Kodachrome produced by Eastman Kodak by capturing images around New York.

"Then we went to India, where I photographed a tribe that is actually on the verge of extinction. It's actually disappearing, the same way as Kodachrome," he told Steinle.

Kodak announced last year that it would retire Kodachrome, a brand name of color reversal film it had manufactured since 1935. McCurry, well-known for his 1984 photograph of Sharbat Gula, or the "Afghan Girl," published on the cover of National Geographic magazine, requested from Kodak to shoot the last roll of 36 frames it manufactured.

National Geographic has closely documented the journey of the final roll of Kodachrome manufactured, down to its being processed. Dwayne's is only photo lab left in the world to handle Kodachrome processing, so National Geographic Television producer Yvonne Russo and National Geographic magazine senior video producer Hans Weise found themselves in Parsons Monday, along with McCurry, with the final roll of the iconic film of the 20th century.
Sad to see it go. Digital is now of a quality to equal if not replace the incredible resolution of KM-135 and in some senses, is a lot more versatile but it is still sad to see it go -- one of these things you always think will be around forever... Posted by DaveH at July 24, 2010 10:43 AM
Comments
Post a comment









Remember personal info?