This editorial is from the Sacramento Bee:
Babe Ruth hit his 714th and last home run in 1935, retiring later that year from baseball. Amelia Earhart took off from California for Hawaii on the first such solo flight by a woman; Nazi Germany adopted a flag with a swastika; and the first animated full-length movie, ?Snow White,? made its debut.
So, too, did Kodak?s iconic Kodachrome film, opening a vast, colorful world to photographers everywhere. Now, 74 years later, it represents less than 1 percent of Kodak?s revenue, only one processor in the world can develop it, and it will be made for only a few more months.
When 2009 ends, so will Kodachrome.
What a run it had, illuminating countless family slideshows and news photographs around the globe. Adapted for both still and motion pictures, it brought to life colors that sometimes seemed impossibly rich and bright.
Film photography was one of the early victims of digital revolution. Seemingly all at once, the world?s photographers turned away from film and started shooting digitally, a practice now almost ubiquitous.
Kodak?s work force was pared from about 60,000 to about 10,000 employees as factories closed and digital endeavors rose to the fore.
The ability to shoot and store vast numbers of images unleashed a torrent of amateur photography. (How many of us can actually find a specific photo in that vast assortment is another question.) We are left with indelible images captured and preserved for two generations by the venerable color film. From World War II to the space program, on magazine pages, movie screens and living room walls, our view of the world was usually Kodachrome.
Kodachrome has a fitting valedictory readily at hand, courtesy of Paul Simon, who sang:
?Kodachrome .
.
. They give us those nice bright colors.They give us the greens of summers.Makes you think all the world?s a sunny day. .
They give us those nice bright colors.
They give us the greens of summers.
Makes you think all the world?s a sunny day. .
.
. Mama don?t take my Kodachrome away.?
Mama don?t take my Kodachrome away.?
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