Kodachrome

Last year a friend asked me to take slides of some artwork he had created. He was trying to get into a show, and the organizers required color slides of his work to determine whether it was up to their standards. (It was.) It was rather archaic of them, but those were their rules. I hadn't used slide film in at least 20 years, but was glad to give it a try.

One thing every photographer – at least, those of a certain age – knows about color slides: they're unforgiving. Photo processors routinely "improve" your photographs printed from negatives or digital files, but with slides: what you took is what you get. When I went to the shoot, I took a film camera I hadn't used in years, loaded with Kodachrome. But I also took a digital camera. I shot first with the digital camera, and used the resulting images to make sure I had the exposure just right and the flash didn't glare off the paintings. Only then did I pick up the film camera, and reproduce the settings.

What got me talking about that was the recent news that Kodak will discontinue production of Kodachrome later this year. They stopped making Kodachrome 25 in 2001, though you can still buy it on eBay (as I'm writing this, 8 rolls are going for $152.89, with 4 days left in the bidding). But now they're shutting down all Kodachrome production.

I'm a little sad about that, but as beautiful as a good Kodachrome slide can be, there are lots of good reasons why hardly anyone is shooting Kodachrome anymore.

My favorite (professional) photographer, Steve McCurry, has been selected to shoot the last, ceremonial roll of Kodachrome film. You know McCurry's work, even if you don't know his name. According to The Online Photographer, McCurry estimates he has shot 800,000 pictures on Kodachrome.

If you've got a few minutes, I can't recommend his web gallery enough.



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