Kodachrome, the storied camera film that has documented historic events and everyday lives since the Great Depression, is about to fade into oblivion.
Amid a long-running shift to digital photography, Eastman Kodak Co. said Monday that because of plunging sales, it is ending production of the film it first introduced in 1935. The company said the final batch of the slide film, known for its rich colors and clarity, is being manufactured now in Mexico and that supplies should probably last until the fall.
Kodak's World Losing Its Color1:20
Barrons.com's Bob O'Brien says that Eastman Kodak is struggling in this particularly rough economy, and is stopping production of its Kodachrome film line.
The Rochester, N.Y., company said the film accounted for less than 1% of its traditional still-film business. Sales for the unit that includes that business fell 31% to $503 million in the first quarter. Kodak has been cutting back its film business in a wrenching transformation to digital products that has wiped out tens of thousands of jobs and resulted in billions of dollars in losses.
Kodachrome, the first successful color film, was used to document many historic events of the last century, including the 1937 crash of the Hindenberg and the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In the 1950s, climber Edmund Hillary used Kodachrome to take photographs atop Mount Everest.
Mary Jane Hellyar, president of Kodak's film, photofinishing and entertainment group, said in a statement that it was a difficult decision to "retire" Kodachrome because of its history.
"However," she added, "the majority of today's photographers have voiced their preference to capture images with newer technology -- both film and digital."
Used to make countless family slide shows of young Baby Boomers, Kodachrome also famously lent its name to a 1973 hit by singer Paul Simon. By then, its fortunes were already on the decline as more and more amateur photographers switched from slides to printed photographs and later to digital photography.
"I probably haven't shot slides in like 10 years," said Ray Potes, founder of a San Francisco-based photography magazine called Hamburger Eyes.
Even so, many devotees took the news hard. John Newkirk, of Denver, said his father, Jack, used Kodachrome to document his time in the Pacific during World War II. The younger Mr. Newkirk heard about the film's demise while on a cross-country motorcycle trip to commemorate a similar journey that his father made before WWII.
"I've got seven rolls with me," said Mr. Newkirk, who is documenting places his father stopped with the older man's camera. "It's a very hard passing."
Daniel Bayer, operator of a Web site called the Kodachrome Project, said that, knowing Kodachrome's days were probably numbered, he has hoarded close to 900 rolls of it a lead-lined freezer in his garage. A professional photographer, he plans to use them for a series of photo essays documenting changes in American life. He praised the film's "very cinematic quality."
Even so, because of its make up, Kodachrome is extremely difficult for amateurs to process and there is only one remaining business -- Dwayne's Photo, in Parsons, Kan. -- that does so commercially. Kodak said Dwayne's has indicated it will continue handling the film through 2010.
Kodak said it will donate some of the last rolls of Kodachrome to the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography in Rochester.
The company said it has also asked photographer Steve McCurry to shoot one of those rolls. Mr. McCurry used Kodachrome to take a well-known photo of a young Afghan girl that appeared on the cover of National Geographic Magazine in 1985.
Kodachrome was invented by Leopold Godowsky Jr. and Leopold Mannes, two classical musicians and amateur photographers.
Used to make countless family slide shows of young Baby Boomers, Kodachrome also famously lent its name to a 1973 hit by singer Paul Simon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujhdf9_IO4w
Kodachrome
( Paul Simon )
When I think back
On all the crap I learned in high schoolIt's a wonder
I can think at all
And though my lack of education
Hasn't hurt me noneI can read the writing on the wall
KodachromeYou give us those nice bright colors
You give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeah!
I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So Mama, don't take my Kodachrome away
If you took all the girls I knew
When I was single
And brought them all together for one nightI know they'd never match
My sweet imagination
And everything looks worse in black and white
Kodachrome
You give us those nice bright colors
You give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeah
!I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So Mama, don't take my Kodachrome away
Mama, don't take my Kodachrome away
Mama, don't take my Kodachrome away
Mama, don't take my Kodachrome away
Mama, don't take my Kodachrome
Mama, don't take my Kodachrome
Mama, don't take my Kodachrome (away)
Mama, don't take my Kodachrome
Mama, don't take my Kodachrome
Mama, don't take my Kodachrome (away)
Mama, don't take my Kodachrome(Leave your boy so far from home)
Mama, don't take my Kodachrome (away)
More Lyrics
Amid a long-running shift to digital photography, Eastman Kodak Co. said Monday that because of plunging sales, it is ending production of the film it first introduced in 1935. The company said the final batch of the slide film, known for its rich colors and clarity, is being manufactured now in Mexico and that supplies should probably last until the fall.
Kodak's World Losing Its Color1:20
Barrons.com's Bob O'Brien says that Eastman Kodak is struggling in this particularly rough economy, and is stopping production of its Kodachrome film line.
The Rochester, N.Y., company said the film accounted for less than 1% of its traditional still-film business. Sales for the unit that includes that business fell 31% to $503 million in the first quarter. Kodak has been cutting back its film business in a wrenching transformation to digital products that has wiped out tens of thousands of jobs and resulted in billions of dollars in losses.
Kodachrome, the first successful color film, was used to document many historic events of the last century, including the 1937 crash of the Hindenberg and the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In the 1950s, climber Edmund Hillary used Kodachrome to take photographs atop Mount Everest.
Mary Jane Hellyar, president of Kodak's film, photofinishing and entertainment group, said in a statement that it was a difficult decision to "retire" Kodachrome because of its history.
"However," she added, "the majority of today's photographers have voiced their preference to capture images with newer technology -- both film and digital."
Used to make countless family slide shows of young Baby Boomers, Kodachrome also famously lent its name to a 1973 hit by singer Paul Simon. By then, its fortunes were already on the decline as more and more amateur photographers switched from slides to printed photographs and later to digital photography.
"I probably haven't shot slides in like 10 years," said Ray Potes, founder of a San Francisco-based photography magazine called Hamburger Eyes.
Even so, many devotees took the news hard. John Newkirk, of Denver, said his father, Jack, used Kodachrome to document his time in the Pacific during World War II. The younger Mr. Newkirk heard about the film's demise while on a cross-country motorcycle trip to commemorate a similar journey that his father made before WWII.
"I've got seven rolls with me," said Mr. Newkirk, who is documenting places his father stopped with the older man's camera. "It's a very hard passing."
Daniel Bayer, operator of a Web site called the Kodachrome Project, said that, knowing Kodachrome's days were probably numbered, he has hoarded close to 900 rolls of it a lead-lined freezer in his garage. A professional photographer, he plans to use them for a series of photo essays documenting changes in American life. He praised the film's "very cinematic quality."
Even so, because of its make up, Kodachrome is extremely difficult for amateurs to process and there is only one remaining business -- Dwayne's Photo, in Parsons, Kan. -- that does so commercially. Kodak said Dwayne's has indicated it will continue handling the film through 2010.
Kodak said it will donate some of the last rolls of Kodachrome to the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography in Rochester.
The company said it has also asked photographer Steve McCurry to shoot one of those rolls. Mr. McCurry used Kodachrome to take a well-known photo of a young Afghan girl that appeared on the cover of National Geographic Magazine in 1985.
Kodachrome was invented by Leopold Godowsky Jr. and Leopold Mannes, two classical musicians and amateur photographers.
Used to make countless family slide shows of young Baby Boomers, Kodachrome also famously lent its name to a 1973 hit by singer Paul Simon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujhdf9_IO4w
Kodachrome
( Paul Simon )
When I think back
On all the crap I learned in high schoolIt's a wonder
I can think at all
And though my lack of education
Hasn't hurt me noneI can read the writing on the wall
KodachromeYou give us those nice bright colors
You give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeah!
I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So Mama, don't take my Kodachrome away
If you took all the girls I knew
When I was single
And brought them all together for one nightI know they'd never match
My sweet imagination
And everything looks worse in black and white
Kodachrome
You give us those nice bright colors
You give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeah
!I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So Mama, don't take my Kodachrome away
Mama, don't take my Kodachrome away
Mama, don't take my Kodachrome away
Mama, don't take my Kodachrome away
Mama, don't take my Kodachrome
Mama, don't take my Kodachrome
Mama, don't take my Kodachrome (away)
Mama, don't take my Kodachrome
Mama, don't take my Kodachrome
Mama, don't take my Kodachrome (away)
Mama, don't take my Kodachrome(Leave your boy so far from home)
Mama, don't take my Kodachrome (away)
More Lyrics
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