Kodachrome

Eastman Kodak Company announced today that it will retire its Kodachrome colour film this year, concluding its 74-year run as a photography icon. While Kodachrome, which was born in 1935, was not the world’s first colour film using a subtractive method – brands like Gasparcolor had been around for a couple of years by then -, it was unquestionably the first commercially viable one, which put an end to the rule of additive processes like Autochrome or Dufaycolor that had dominated the colour film/plate market for the first couple of decades of the twentieth century. Kodachrome went on to become an iconic film used by many great photographers working for National Geographic and other publications. However, sales have declined dramatically in recent years, as people went digital or turned to newer films. Kodak claims that today it represents “just a fraction of one percent” of their total sales of still-picture films. Steve McCurry, the photojournalist who captured the legendary portrait of the Afghan girl on Kodachrome a quarter of a century ago, will have the privilege of shooting one of the last rolls.