Long Live Kodachrome

What a great film. And what a bygone era.

Kodachrome. If you've ever shot 35 mm slide film, you've probably used it. In all of my days as a photographer, I have gone through plenty of rolls of it. As Simon and Garfunkel noted, it has beautiful colors ... "just don't take my Kodachrome away ".

As of December 20, 2007, there is but one remaining location in the world that develops the slide film - that being Dwayne's Photo in metropolitan Parsons, Kansas. The last stock of Kodachrome 64 was produced in March, 2007. At this point in time, fresh Kodachrome no longer exists. It's hard to believe, and sad but true.

So what would cause a company like Kodak to drop one of it's most popular products?

The digital revolution.

Digital cameras do a great job of collecting data. But there are many - self included - that aren't yet convinced that they capture the true essence of the image. It's a similar issue that has been raised with digital music. I can remember Neil Young saying that digital recording just didn't capture the same ambience of the music being recorded. I think he was right - yes, analog does sound different (better?) than digital. Much like the complaints with digital music, photos are no different. I've read that a 35 mm Kodachrome slide has the equivalent 'data' of a 25 megapixel digital camera image. Try buying one of those without selling the farm beforehand!

And now we're left with - no Kodachrome. A staple of the photo industry. Gone.

I have fond memories of popping a canister of Kodachrome into my Olympus OM-10. My father gave it to me after he'd won it in a photo contest. I can remember shooting photos at high school football games, auto races, rowing events, just about anywhere and everywhere that a moment in time could be caught on film. Photojournalism was almost my chosen profession. Putting that OM-10 in my hands again can immediately take me back to about 1982 or 1983. Ahh, the feel of a well-balanced 35 mm camera, sitting in my hands, a keen eye waiting for that special moment ... knowing that you were going to shoot 24 photos and probably only get one really special photo. If you were lucky.

As we move forward technologically, we sometimes lose sight of some of the wonders of our world, some of the things that we hold near and dear to our hearts.

And for a photographer, one of those things is surely Kodachrome.

I will certainly be sad to see you go.