Kodak Don't Take My Kodachrome Away!

"Eastman Kodak said Monday that it will retire Kodachrome color film this year after 74 years on the market. The company said that Kodachrome sales have plunged since the introduction of both new films and digital technology, and the product now accounts for less than 1% of Kodak's still-picture-film sales. It expects current supplies of Kodachrome film to last until early fall, and it will donate the last rolls to George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film in Rochester, N.Y."

All images below are Kodachromes from Mango Falls, a fun site with a boatload of interesting, old Kodachrome images.









The song below, Paul Simon's "shout-out" to the deceased film stock, was was written nearly 40 years ago. I'm actually surprised that Kodak held on to the ghost of Kodachrome for this long. Still, it's always a tad melancholy to see a process or a material disappear.

"Kodachrome"


"When I think back on all the crap I've learned in high school
It's a wonder I can think at all
Though my lack of education hasn't hurt me much
I can read the writings on the walls

Chorus:
Kodachrome, they give us those nice bright colours
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeah
I got a Nikon camera, I love to take a photograph
So mama don't take my Kodachrome away

If you took all the girls I knew when I was single
Brought 'em all together for one night
I know they'd never match my sweet imagination
Everything looks worse in black and white

chorus

Mama don't take my Kodachrome away, mama don't take my Kodachrome away
Mama don't take my Kodachrome away

Mama don't take my Kodachrome, mama don't take my Kodachrome
Mama don't take my Kodachrome away
Mama don't take my Kodachrome and leave your boy so far from home
Mama don't take my Kodachrome away
Mama don't take my Kodachrome, whew whew, mama don't take my Kodachrome away"