Goodbye Kodachrome

This week marked the end for Kodachrome film and the chemicals needed to develop the film. It was created by Kodak in 1935 and it was the first commercially successful color film. Last June Kodak announced that it would retire the iconic film after 74 years blaming a major decline in sales.

Still, this is the end of an era for many photographers and photography buffs. I for one never even had the chance to shoot a roll of Kodachrome but I'm feeling the urge to bust out my film cameras in light of the news. The film was best known for capturing rich color and light in a way that many say cannot be replicated by digital cameras. Even Paul Simon wrote a song about it!

The film was used to take some world-famous photographs, including a personal favorite of mine - Steve McCurry’s National Geographic 1985 cover image of a young Afghan girl.



Incidentally, Kodak gave McCurry the last roll of Kodachrome last year. McCurry hand-delivered the final roll to Parsons after he finished shooting. Here are some of those photos but you should head over to his blog to see more.

McCurry says on his blog "I have about 800,000 Kodachrome transparencies in my archive. It was probably the greatest film ever made."

This is truly a sad time and it makes me wonder...wouldn't this be a wonderful undertaking by The Impossible Project? Just sayin'...


Elliot Erwitt, Magnum Photographer, known for his wit and whimsical humor, photographed in his studio, Central Park West, NYC


Robert De Niro in his screening room in Tribeca, NYC


Rabari Girl


Grand Central Terminal, New York, one of the most important and beloved architectural icons in the city


Rabari Magician

Data and some text via A Thousand Words and Mashable.

Images and text directly related to images via
Steve McCurry's Blog.

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