6/22/09

"give me those nice, bright colors"


"I don't think there's a better way to look at the world than with Kodachrome 64 ... "

-- Steve McCurry, whose shot of an Afghan girl is known throughout the world.

McCurry may be right, but apparently Kodachrome's time has come and gone. Kodak announced today that it will stop producing the color transparency, which the company said makes up less than 1 percent of its business.

The official announcement is over here, along with a very nice interview and slideshow of McCurry's work. (He said his archive includes almost a million transparencies, and about 90 percent of them are Kodachrome.) There's also an invitation to share your Kodachrome memories.

Time magazine has a short history and appreciation of Kodachrome over here. Kodak hasn't been processing the film for two decades. There's only one place left in the world that develops it, and it only processes a couple of hundred rolls of film a day.

1 comment:

  1. I was pretty surprised when I read the announcement this morning.
    Sad decision, but hopefully someone will come up with a reasonable substitute for the rest of the film wasters of the world.

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