Her name is Sharbat Gula
Here she is recently
Posted on 06/22/2009 2:34:46 PM PDT by Paleo Conservative
Kodak has closed one of its oldest and most famous product lines, in the latest sign of the film business fading away against the onslaught of digital photography.
The US-based group on Monday said it would cease production of Kodachrome, the line of professional quality film that was first developed in 1935 and became one of the company’s pre-eminent brands, known for stunning colours and sharpness.
Kodachrome captured some of the world’s most well-known images, including the 1984 photograph ‘Afghan Girl’ of a refugee with a torn red scarf and striking green eyes, which was on the cover of National Geographic magazine.
“It was certainly a difficult decision to retire it, given its rich history,” said Mary Jane Hellyar, head of Kodak’s film, photofinishing and entertainment group.
Kodachrome’s prominence may have peaked in the 1970s when it was immortalised by Paul Simon, who lauded the film’s capacity for bright colours with the lyrics, “Mama don’t take my Kodachrome away”.
Kodak’s newer and cheaper films, combined with the rapid transition to digital cameras in the past 10 years, have eaten away at demand for Kodachrome, which requires complicated processing. The film now represents less than 1 per cent of the company’s total sales of still-picture films.
Due to the dwindling sales there is only one location left in the US – Dwayne’s Photo in Parsons, Kansas – where photographers can have Kodachrome developed. The shop will continue processing the film until next year.
Kodak’s business has been savaged by the weak economy and its slow transition to digital cameras and inkjet printing.
The company now derives about 70 per cent of its revenues from commercial and digital products and in 2004 it stopped selling reloadable film cameras in North America and western Europe. This year it slashed its dividend, cut executive salaries and announced it would cut up to 4,500 jobs.
The company suffered a net loss of $353m for the first quarter, with sales down 29 per cent. Its shares have fallen 85 per cent in the past year.
Kodak on Monday reaffirmed its commitment to film, noting that it has produced seven new film brands in the past three years. However, according to Chris Whitmore, an analyst at Deutsche Bank, film retail sales in the US have fallen by 30 per cent in the past year.
Even Steve McCurry, who took the image of the Afghan girl, has switched to digital.
It was great stuff. My dad has some Kodachrome slides from the 40’s and 50’s that look like they were shot yesterday. Supposedly the EU is taking some sort of anti-trust action against Kodak to try and block this?
Her name is Sharbat Gula
Here she is recently
Typical of a dieing medium to refer to a 40 year old song and a 25 year old photograph. Shows you how out of touch and living-in-the-past they truly are.
They’re seriously going order them to keep producing an unprofitable product?
by order of Wesley Mooch.
So similar, yet so different. Of course, she was “showing hair” in the first one, and if she were “showing hair” in the second one she probably wouldn’t look quite so harsh.
That would be pretty difficult, especially since there are no labs processing Kodachome in Europe anymore. All European and North American Kodachrome proessing is handled by one processing plant in Kansas.
http://www.dwaynesphoto.com/
20 years ago, business school textbooks were predicting Kodaks demise as the move to digital photography was already written on the wall.
My wife has eyes that green.
There is an effort underway to purchase the patents and continue production of Kodachrome, because it is essential for some limited and high value photography. If people will pay $100 or more for a roll of film, and twice that much to process it, it will survive.
Nooooooo! They be takin my Kodachrome away!
She fell out of the Ugly Tree, and damn if she didn’t hit every branch on the way down...
I had family who used to live in Parsons, KS, and I visited there frequently as a child. There’s really not much to the town. No commercial air service within 60 miles, no commercial bus service.
Live most of your life running from the Soviets and then the Taliban and we’ll see how you age
June 22, 2009
Kodak Retires KODACHROME Film; Celebrates Life of Oldest Film Icon in its Portfolio
Newer KODAK Films and Digital Cameras are Preferred Choice for Today’s Photographers
ROCHESTER, N.Y., June 22 -- Eastman Kodak Company announced today that it will retire KODACHROME Color Film this year, concluding its 74-year run as a photography icon.
Sales of KODACHROME Film, which became the world’s first commercially successful color film in 1935, have declined dramatically in recent years as photographers turned to newer KODAK Films or to the digital imaging technologies that Kodak pioneered. Today, KODACHROME Film represents just a fraction of one percent of Kodak’s total sales of still-picture films.
“KODACHROME Film is an iconic product and a testament to Kodak’s long and continuing leadership in imaging technology,” said Mary Jane Hellyar, President of Kodak’s Film, Photofinishing and Entertainment Group. "It was certainly a difficult decision to retire it, given its rich history. However, the majority of today's photographers have voiced their preference to capture images with newer technology – both film and digital. Kodak remains committed to providing the highest-performing products – both film and digital – to meet those needs."
While Kodak now derives about 70% of its revenues from commercial and consumer digital businesses, it is the global leader in the film business. Kodak has continued to bring innovative new film products to market, including seven new professional still films and several new VISION2 and VISION3 motion picture films in the past three years.These new still film products are among those that have become the dominant choice for those professional and advanced amateur photographers who use KODAK Films.
Among the well-known professional photographers who used KODACHROME Film is Steve McCurry, whose picture of a young Afghan girl captured the hearts of millions of people around the world as she peered hauntingly from the cover of National Geographic Magazine in 1985.
As part of a tribute to KODACHROME Film, Kodak will donate the last rolls of the film to George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film in Rochester, which houses the world’s largest collection of cameras and related artifacts. McCurry will shoot one of those last rolls and the images will be donated to Eastman House.
“The early part of my career was dominated by KODACHROME Film, 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 PROFESSIONAL EKTACHROME Film E100VS to create that image, rather than KODACHROME Film as with the original.”
For all of its magic, KODACHROME is a complex film to manufacture and an even more complex film to process. There is only one remaining photofinishing lab in the world – Dwayne’s Photo in Parsons, Kansas – that processes KODACHROME Film, precisely because of the difficulty of processing. This lack of widespread processing availability, as well as the features of newer films introduced by Kodak over the years, has accelerated the decline of demand for KODACHROME Film.
During its run, KODACHROME Film filled a special niche in the annals of the imaging world. It was used to capture some of the best-known photographs in history, while also being the film of choice for family slide shows of the Baby Boom generation.
To celebrate the film’s storied history, Kodak has created a gallery of iconic images, including the Afghan girl and other McCurry photos, as well as others from professional photographers Eric Meola and Peter Guttman on its website: www.kodak.com/go/kodachrometribute. Special podcasts featuring McCurry and Guttman will also be featured on the website.
Kodak estimates that current supplies of KODACHROME Film will last until early this fall at the current sales pace. Dwayne’s Photo has indicated it will continue to offer processing for the film through 2010. Current KODACHROME Film users are encouraged to try other KODAK Films, such as KODAK PROFESSIONAL EKTACHROME E100G and EKTAR 100 Film. These films both feature extremely fine grain. For more information, please visit www.kodak.com/go/professional.
About Kodak
As the world's foremost imaging innovator, Kodak helps consumers, businesses, and creative professionals unleash the power of pictures and printing to enrich their lives.
To learn more, visit http://www.kodak.com and follow our blogs and more at http://www.kodak.com/go/followus.
More than 70 million people worldwide manage, share and create photo gifts online at KODAK Gallery --join for free today at www.kodakgallery.com.
This was a great film. I’ve yet to see a digital image - still or moving- that has the same depth of tones.
Yup. I think I shot miles of the stuff back in the day.
End of an Era.
How many patents could possibly be current for a film that has been on the market since 1935? Perhaps there are trade secrets that haven't been patented? A few weeks ago, I was thinking of buying a good used Nikon F5 for shooting Kodachrome, but not at $100 per roll.
Another type I used was Ilford B/W film and it was fun to develop myself.
I’ve heard professional photogs say the same about the more recent films that are out as well.
Good point.
Kodachrome, they give us those nice bright colours
They 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
She was so beautiful. How sad that life has been so hard on her.
It is a great song.
I’venever liked Kodak products. I always use Fujifilm.
Kodak erred in not allowing for the need for quick processing - the Kodachrome K14 process took at least 24 hours to have processed even on a rush basis, while the Ektachrome E-6 process could be done in an hour with a much simpler processor machine.
Supposedly someone came out with a one-hour K14 process but Kodak would not let it be marketed. One of many marketing failures from Eastman Kodak.
At least I still have a few hundred shots of Kodachrome taken when I was a teenager and into photography...
Absurd. Kodachrome went out of patent long ago and anyone who wished could produce a duplicate. Apparently nobody wishes, or else there would be a lot more places to develop it.
One can only imagine what those green eyes have witnessed all these years in that hell hole over there. You wouldn’t look much better.
Best color film, ever.
The Kodachrome in use today is somewhat different from the original Kodachrome, and its modifications, as well as its processing, are still proprietary.
Likely whoever is able to assemble all the rights, “ingredients” and process, will be able to set whatever price they want. But it will be decidedly high end, as other film makers will provide for the low end market. Even the high end users will do “practice” shots with digital and low end film, to conserve their Kodachrome as much as possible.
One of my favorite example pictures is at the following URL
The image is a scan of a 40 year old slide, so it is a little kinky but still a fun shot of little Teraza, in Kaphuka Village, Dedza District, Central Region of Malawi in Central Africa.
Here's me and my little house about 50 feet from the picture taken of Teraza.
Kodachrome - R.I.P. You made us all better photographers.
“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
Kodachrome
They give us those nice bright colors
They 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 night
I know they’d never match
my sweet imagination
everything looks WORSE in black and white
Kodachrome
They give us those nice bright colors
They 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
Leave your boy so far from home
Mama don’t take my Kodachrome away
Mama don’t take my Kodachrome
Mama don’t take my Kodachrome away”
They also had the best copier on the market, but were sued by Xerox and dropped out.
They also invented the best instant camera system/film ever, but were sued by Polaroid and dropped out. Curiously, Kodak supplied Polaroid with all of their film at the time.
Kodak also invented and is yet to fully market the very best media screen ever, based upon OLED technology, but where is it? An Oled screen on a digital camera or TV screen or video camera would look so Kodachrome sharp and bright you can see it in bright sunlight.
Kodak has had years of bad luck, poor choices and bad management. Too bad. It was a great company once. I know. I worked there for 36 years.
Fuji actually copied Kodak film and is one of the reasons for Kodak’s loss of market share.
Paulus,
Nice post. Wow 36 years! The stories you could tell...
For maybe 20 years I used Kodachrome almost exclusively. I guess I haven’t put a roll of it through in at least 10 years but I still feel like I just lost an old friend.
Well if it's going to be a high end film, whoever manufactures it should manufacture Kodachrome 25 and 220 roll. I've heard good things about Fuji's Velvia for shooting landscapes, but Kodachrome still has superior warm tones for photographing people.
Kodachrome Basin State Park ought to be renamed to Fujichrome Basin State Park !
Hardly. Don't let nostalgia cloud your vision.
Reason has little to do with it. You're attacking his religion.
Ditto -
Most of the stuff I have sold (several magazine covers even) were with the Fuji Velvia product.
I used to purchase slide film by the flat.
Now, I carry film as a backup to my digital camera...tho some editors still request slide/transparency for image submissions.
Still haven’t found a good replacement for my Mamiya Medium format camera - try buying that film at a discount...!
(Ya, I know, but who can afford one?)
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