Another nail in the coffin of silver halide photography was driven home when Kodak this week announced the passing of what most photographers beyond a certain age regard as the best colour film, and perhaps even the best image capture medium: Kodachrome.
 June 22, 2009: Another nail in the coffin of silver halide photography was driven home when Kodak this week announced the passing of what most photographers beyond a certain age regard as the best colour film, and perhaps even the best image capture medium: Kodachrome. Kodachrome was the world’s first commercially successful colour film, released in 1935. Sales have plummeted as stock became hard to come by (it’s virtually non-existent in Australia) and processing outlets around the world were reduced to just one. Oh, and there was that little, not unrelated matter of the digital imaging revolution. Today, Kodachrome represents less than one percent of Kodak’s total sales of still-picture films. While regarded as a superb, virtually grainless film, with colour that Paul Simon famously warbled, “makes you think all the world’s a sunny day”, Kodachrome was a dog of a thing to manufacture and processing is complex and expensive. The one remaining photofinishing lab in the world processing Kodachrome ““ Dwayne’s Photo in Parsons, Kansas ““ will continue offering the service only through to next year ““ which will make hoarding futile. Unlike other colour films, Kodachrome is based on black and white film technology. The three primary colours that mix to form the wide colour gamut are added in three development steps rather than built into its layers. (So it may in fact be possible to have rolls of Kodachrome processed as monochrome film after Dwayne’s de-commissions its venerable Kodachrome processor.) In addition to its other attributes, Kodachrome is the only colour filmwhich has genuinely archival keeping qualities, with a useful life whenstored correctly of around 100 years. Instead of the usual three-line statement corporations and politicians use when announcing bad news, Kodak has made something of a celebration of Kodachrome’s passing, showcasing some of the iconic and just plain beautiful images captured on the emulsion over the years on its website. Among these are phtojournalist Steve McCurry’s “Afghan girl” (above) and other McCurry photos, and others from professional photographers Eric Meola and Peter Guttman. Special podcasts featuring McCurry and Guttman will also be featured on the website.
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