Mamma Don't Take My Kodachrome Away....

"When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school. It's a wonder I can think at all. And though my lack of edu---cation hasn't hurt me none I can read the writing on the wall." ~ Paul Simon

OK, so everyone has probably caught themselves walking around the past day or two humming the old Paul Simon song and lamenting about the end of an era as Kodak announces the end of Kodachrome.

Yep... Kodak is taking your Kodachrome away.

A photography pioneer, Kodak, has announced that it will end production of the 74-year-old product at the end of 2009 citing dwindling sales and noting most labs plan to stop processing it.

Revenues from Kodachrome sales represent "a fraction of 1%" of Kodak's still-picture films, said the company.

The world's first commercially successful color film, Kodachrome enjoyed its heyday in the 1950s and '60s. However, in recent years it has flirted with obscurity with only one commercial lab in the world still processing it.

To quote Paul Simon; "They give us those nice bright colors. They give us the greens of summers. Makes you think all the world's a sunny day. ... So Mama don't take my Kodachrome away."

At Kodak's request, Photojournalist, Steve McCurry, will shoot one of the last rolls of Kodachrome film and donate the images to the George Eastman House. The George Eastman House is museum in upstate Rochester, New York, which honors Kodak's founder. McCurry is known for his widely recognized portrait of an Afghan refugee girl that appeared on the cover of National Geographic in 1985. It was shot on Kodachrome.

Kodachrome was the basis for countless family slideshows on carousel projectors over the years and also for world-renowned images, including Abraham Zapruder's 8-mm. reel of President John F. Kennedy's assassination on Nov. 22, 1963.

Kodachrome was a product that truly served our lives. It did capture the nice bright colors and it did give us the greens of summer... and it did make you remember all the world as a sunny day. What else gives you that? Think about it. Think about the times you sat around looking at family photos. Vacations, birthdays, weddings, graduations, anniversaries... if our memory is kind, Kodachrome was kinder.

I recall being at the final game played at the old Tiger Stadium. The following day Detroit Free Press sportswriter, Mitch Albom, summed up the event perfectly. He noted how when the old players and great names gathered on the field, he looked around in the crowd watching peoples faces. He realized, people weren't jsut recalling the great names that played the game of baseball at "the corner." No, they were recalling the great memories of the times they had GOING to the games. It was about family. It was sons and daughters with their moms and dads or grandparents enjoying a day at the park. The game, the players... even the score, was secondary. It was a part of our lives we spent as a family, together enjoying life.

And isn't THAT what it's all about?

So... here's the question; Over the last few days everyone seems to have had a reaction to this announcement. Is this reaction one of true sadness for the end of a great product? Is it the reality that film is another part of our lives giving way to digital technology? Or is it areaction to our own life and the memories that Kodachrome captured for us, and of us?

Personally, I think it's the latter.

"If you took all the girls I knew when I was single, and brought them all together for one night. I know theyd never match my sweet imagination and everything looks worse in black and white."

Leave a comment... share a memory. Tell us what you think.

Comments

[Dustin Finn]

An informative post like yours is what I was hoping to read when I noticed lots of displays for affection for a film I never had the grace or ability to shoot with. I'm 32, actually, just turned 32, and my first camera was a 110 camera, that hardly got used because we just couldnt swing the cost of developing. And it was a 110 camera, the days of a fotomat processing booth in your local shopping center like A&P or something.

My grand father would hand me bridge-like film cameras - and I would shoot at a wedding or family event and then give the camera back to him, I'm not even sure where those photos are or if they were ever developed. Even when that camera was given to me, I again had the same issue of developing.

My first real run into photography was in 2001, a 2 week trip to London UK to visit a friend from the US working there... I bought a Canon Power Shot S100 2.1 MP camera and shot the hell out of that town... I had the best weather the area had seen in months... I was officially hooked on photography and I had no idea what I was doing.. I just loved it.

So, I don't get to really see or understand the sentimental side except for this post and some other searches I'll conduct over the next few days.

Maybe the ending of the Kodachrome manufacturing will enable a better education for the digital generation in understanding the beginnings...

[John Thawley]

Dustin: Glad you got the gist of this post. It seems a few other "pro" photographers either didn't read it or didn't get. Their Facebook comments to me seemed to go off on the film characteristics... and insisting "why are people discussing this or lamenting something they never shot or don't understand.

My point was as I said earlier today. The lamenting is about "Kodachrome" the idea... not "Kodachrome" the film. After all, there's a song about the stuff. LOL - Somethings become iconic in our society; Harley Davidson, Elmers glue, Leder #2 pencils, Slinky... I could go on. Heck... look at Corvettes, One of Chevy's favorites sayings about the Corvette is "no one ever wrote a love song about a Toyota." How about James Dean... you know how many films he made... 6.. he's a bigger "idea" than he ever was a star.

So... this discussion was simply taking aim at the nostalgic idea of the film... not the actual or technical properties.

Thanks for participating and glad you took something away from the post.

JT

[James Elmore]

The great thing about this happening is that it will create a niche market to service those artisans who need to work in this medium. For example polaroid: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/gadgets/news/article.cfm?c_id=238&objectid=10552453

[Darren Pierson]

Personally, I did not shoot much reversal film until the 90s and then I was pretty much a Velvia kinda guy. I grew up in a small town and Kodachrome had to be purchased at the local camera/photo store. While I did love the way the slides smelled, the cost of processing was jaw dropping in comparison to E6 systems. I did try it again in college but as 8mm in film classes. I didn't use it much then either as I preferred to abuse the exposures and Kodachrome didn't respond well to anything other than perfect exposure. I guess what I am saying is that I never developed a personal attachment to Kodachrome, so its demise doesn't bother me.

[AJM]

I don't yet have kids of my own, but I certainly will some day. When my kids hear a song like "Kodachrome," they will -- I'm certain, being kids of mine -- be curious and ask "dad, what's Koda-krome?"

Rather than sending them to Wikipedia (or whatever's replaced it on the next version of the internet by then), I'll have to break out some old photo albums and take them on a tour of what that word really meant to us. Hard-copy photo albums are things we don't seem to keep as much, in the digital age... I learned how to load, shoot, rewind, and eventually develop when I was a kid - I went with a friend of my mom's to the lab at U of M for a lesson or five in film developing.

I was never too crazy about the smell of some of the chemicals, but the photos were an accomplishment of sorts. I had snapped the shot, and through a few hours of messing with stuff in a dark room, brought it to life. That sense of accomplishment is diminished now, with the superlative efficiency and ease of digital photography.

It's another piece of Americana that's disappearing for good. Maybe for the greater good, I can't say, but just like with the demise of carburetors and cassette tapes and analog TV, there's no turning back now.