Afghan girl, Steve McCurry, National Geographic.
Today Kodak announced the end of Kodachrome slide film’s 74 year run. It is a sad day. It is the end of an era and the disappearance of an icon. Unlike all of the “E-6 process” slide films out there, Kodachrome was totally unique in both manufacturing and processing.
Some famous images have been shot in Kodachrome, including Steve McCurry’s “Afghan Girl” which appeared on the cover of National Geographic in 1985. At Kodak’s request, McCurry will shoot one of the last rolls of Kodachrome. The 8mm film of John F. Kennedy’s assassination was shot on Kodachrome.
I shot thousands of frames of Kodachrome 25 and 64 as my favorite landscape and nature photography films. I loved the rich yet realistic colors. Then there came the day that, yes – I confess, I was lured away by the amazing, color-drenched palette of Fujichrome Velvia. Still, Kodachrome has a sentimental place in my photographic memory banks. It could be argued that Kodachrome is/was the most amazing color slide film ever. Especially since it is really a black and white film with the color added in the processing.
There is nothing quite like looking through a loupe at a Kodachrome slide on the light table. Projected on a high quality screeen with a good projector in a dark room, a Kodachrome slide looks mighty good too.
Stored in the dark, Kodachrome is the most archival slide film. My dad’s Kodachrome slides from the 1940’s and 50’s look as good today as they did the day they were taken. His E-6 process Ektachrome slides from the 70’s are fading rapidly.
If you have a film camera, this is your last chance to buy and use Kodachrome before it passes into history. The current manufacturing run is the last. The only lab on the planet that still processes Kodachrome is Dwayne’s and they will process Kodachrome until December 2010, so you have 18 months to buy Kodachrome, shoot, and have fun.
“There are in life a few constants, but far too few. The sun rises in the morning and sets at night, and Kodachrome was what was always there to help us record those sunrises and sunsets and to brilliantly capture that ephemeral distance between light and shadow.
We would win awards with it, and the images that the light burned into its emulsion were a paean to this film, as much as the film was part of the soul of the photographers who used it and the unparalleled images they made with it.
We waited up nights to open those golden boxes–like young children surprised with glee and knowing we could drift asleep again and that all was right with the world, and that there was still Kodachrome, and almost nothing else mattered.” – Eric Meola
The Kodak web site has a selection of photos taken on Kodachrome here and here.
It is time for us all to sing a chorus of Paul’s Simon’s 1973 song “Kodachrome” (on YouTube).
Photo taken on Kodachrome by Eric Meola.