Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Don't Take My Kodachrome Away

It's official. Or it will be official tomorrow. No more Kodachrome film. The end of an era. The last lab in the world that processes the film is discontinuing the processing tomorrow. Kind of makes me wonder just how many people scrambled to get a last batch of pictures taken and that last roll of film sent off to the lab.

Years ago, I used rolls and rolls of Kodachrome film to take pictures underwater. The colors of the corals, sponges, and fish were so vibrant when processed on Kodachrome that it was my film of choice, even if it cost more than other films. I have hundreds of slides with that little Kodachrome label on them. Truth be told, since I'm such a packrat, there's probably a stray roll of film or two sitting in a camera bag.

It's kind of a funny coincidence, but I recently created a peyote cuff for the Etsy BeadWeavers' monthly challenge. The challenge was to create something inspired by a Simon and Garfunkel song, and even though it's not really my favorite of their tunes I thought it would be fun to create a Kodachrome design because of my affinity for the film!

So I guess this Kodachrome cuff is my tribute to my favorite Kodak film. Good bye, Kodachrome. I'll miss you.

3 comments:

Kim said...

this is amazing ML!

malodora said...

I, too, had a love affair with Kodachrome. I still have a library of over 10,000 slides. The vibrant color has not faded one iota.

Carole said...

So colorful!

It's funny that as the demise of the film has come, analog photography is making a huge come back among some of the younger generations (as they shun the digital age for less than perfect results).

I have several slides (not of my own taking) that I have purchased for pennies here and there for use in my artwork. I guess I'll have to save some as 'collector items' now. lol