Tuesday, June 23, 2009

'Momma, Don't Take My Kodachrome Away'



Sorry, Paul Simon. Kodak is taking Kodachrome away.

Mary Altaffer/Associated Press

The photographer Steve McCurry with a poster of his celebrated photo of an Afghan refugee, shot on Kodachrome. He will shoot one of the last rolls of the film for a Rochester museum.

The Eastman Kodak Company announced Monday it would retire Kodachrome, its oldest film stock, because of declining customer demand in a digital age.

It was the world’s first commercially successful color film, immortalized in Simon’s song in 1973: “They give us those nice bright colors. They give us the greens of summers. Makes you think all the world’s a sunny day. ... So, Mama, don’t take my Kodachrome away.”

It enjoyed its heyday in the 1950s and ’60s, but in recent years sales have dropped to just a fraction of 1 percent of the company’s total sales of still-picture films. [Click for MORE]

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