What did famous photographer, Steve McCurry, have to say about Kodaks decision to retire Kodachrome?”
Steve McCurry said, “The early part of my career was dominated by KODACHROME, and I reached for that film to shoot some of my most memorable images,” ————— “Before digital, Kodak was already shifting gears–moving away from the boundaries of KODACHROME (long lab times, fewer labs, a more environmentally friendly, as well as constrained, chemistry)” said Meola. “E100SW and E100VS were a natural evolution of the KODACHROME look, and made my life a lot easier. And they kept all the great things about KODACHROME –long latitude, fine grain, great color–and made it easier for me to get processed anywhere. In some ways, those films were natural predecessors to the digital age.” 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, offered these words: “The early part of my career was dominated by KODACHROME, and I reached for that film to shoot
Eastman Kodak is discontinuing the manufacture of the Kodachrome brand color positive film. Sales were big in the 1950’s and 60’s but Kodachrome now makes up less than one percent of all Kodak’s sales. Vivid colors. Unique textures. Startling contrasts. It was Kodachrome film that first clearly captured these essential photographic elements in 1935. In 2009, though, they’re easily captured by digital cameras. As a result, Kodak announced Monday that the company will no longer manufacture Kodachrome color slide film, which is both expensive to produce and tricky to process. The first commercially successful color film, Kodachrome reached the height of popularity in the 1950s and ’60s. Photographers loved it for its durability, sharp lines and genuine quality. Music lovers came to admire it when Paul Simon sang about it in 1973, describing the beauty of a world that was not black and white: They give us those nice bright colors They give us the greens of summers Makes you think all the w
Famous for his photo of a young Afghan girl with stunning green eyes, Steve McCurry has since moved past the Kodachrome film he used to capture the image that graced the cover of National Geographic magazine in 1985. But in a phone interview from Singapore, McCurry said “there wasn’t a better form produced on the planet at the time that was better than Kodachrome.” In addition to its “fresh, wonderful color rendition,” the film was fantastic for archiving purposes, he said. “There’s a longevity to that film which was really unrivaled,” he said “I have an archive of 800,000 Kodachrome transparencies which I use on a daily basis in terms of scanning and editing and that sort of thing.” “I kind of think of it as an old form now, like somebody you’re never going to see again,” he said. “It was a beautiful, wonderful film and I had great success photographing with it. … But the numbers, the economics just aren’t there. It’s just not viable.
