How many remember those little yellow boxes that would arrive in the mail, carrying our latest processed Kodachrome colour slides? Back in 1965, when I was 18 years old - keen as hell on photography - the arrival of a yellow box was a magic time, as I am sure it was for countless others.
Very soon the yellow boxes will be gone forever.
Kodachrome transparency film was introduced way back in 1935. With only minor changes to its unique fourteen stage process, the product survived until the day before yesterday when it was announced by Eastman Kodak that no more of it would be made. Existing stocks will probably last about 2-3 months and processing of currently circulating rolls will end next year.
The passing of the film era really comes home to me now, because once upon a time I must have shot more Kodachrome than anything else - God alone knows how many frames of it I exposed over the years, recording so much of my youth, young adulthood, early career, family, vacations AND images intended for print publication.
For me photography was all about Kodachrome II which boasted an ASA of 25. Kodachrome I, (which was before my time) had been limited to ASA 10. I am told that it had been just as good if just a bit slow. In any event, for my money, Kodachrome II provided the finest grain and most lifelike colours possible. What is more, the transparencies have lasted, without fading, all this time. For some reason (best known to the Almighty) a certain breed of trend obsessed photographer (sigh) would sneer at my use of KII, dismissing it for it's overbright, overblue colours. Such people (presumably in the know) would always suggest that I change to Ansco or Agfa and then (much later) a johnny come lately product called Fuji.
Well I hope those wise arse characters went ahead and shot EVERYTHING on muddy overwarm Agfa, red biassed Ansco and dull, grainy early version Fuji. I have to tell you that virtually all my Agfacolor slides from the 1960s have turned to purple, many of my Ansco slides have faded almost completely to blank while the early Fuji product I shot was so latitude intolerant that I gave away the whole idea (of shooting Fuji) for decades.
Virtually ALL of my Kodachrome slides look just like they always did - beautiful natural colour, with lovely fine grain.
Eventually along came Kodachrome X with a lightning fast ASA (i.e. ISO to you newbies) of 64. It was a perfect product for use with Instamatic cartridge cameras and while it lacked a little of KII's latitude, the overall results were pretty much the same. A little later they changed the name of these products to "Kodachrome 25" and "Kodachrome 64", which made perfect sense to me.
With the arrival of Kodak's Ektachrome range of transparency films, things began to change. The colours were never as true and the grain never as smooth but they could be processed in a range of local labs that couldn't handle Kodachrome. This made turn-around much faster and for commercial work this was often vital. What's more, keen types could set up their own labs to process Ektachrome themselves and process routines were devised to push the products to 400 ASA and finally even 1200. Colour transparencies could be shot in iffy light circumstances not previously thought possible. Shooters for outfits like National Geographic were delighted and took to Ektachrome like ducks to water.
At the end of the day however, if the light was good and the object of the exercise was unambiguous beauty - Kodachrome was one's film of choice.
Aaanyway .... it's gone now.
Despite the fact that I have now shot digital for years, you only get to be a young impressionable photographer once. I'll always remember Kodachrome.
1 comment:
I was hooked on the Band W film as well at that time and marched into the 400asa stuff as it seemed to provide more flexibility. It is a sad time but what an exciting change at the same time. It is interesting to reflect how digital has been sucha disruptive technology to companies like KODAK who never quite saw it coming or had the nouse to get and lead the band-waggon. Thanks for your excellent reflections.
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