Kodachrome: The End of an Era
Thursday, December 30, 2010 at 10:20AM Today will be the last run of Kodachrome processing anywhere in the world. It will take place not far from here in Parsons, Kansas at Dwayne's Photo.
Kodachrome was invented by two musicians, Leopold Godowsky, Jr. and Leopold Mannes, in the early 1930's. A viable working method of color photography had eluded inventors since the inception of photography, and Kodachrome was the first, most archival, and most beautiful color product ever invented. The running joke in the photo world was that it took God and Man to create color photography.
When people heard that the last run of processing would be late this year they sent film in from all over the world. Ironically, Kodak declined to even comment for the article in the NYTimes.
Many tried to be the last roll processed but in the end that privilege was reserved for the owner of Dwayne's Photo. The very last image will be of his employees all in t-shirts imprinted with the epitaph:
"The best slide and movie film in history is now officially retired. Kodachrome: 1935-2010."
A sad day in the history of the medium.