Kodachrome Fortune Magazine article and images

[Jonnyfez]

http://tiny.cc/rN5mE

 

[sanmich]

Kodachrome in 4x5...what a trip...

 

[venchka]

The sad part: America doesn't work like that anymore. Sadder still is that the folks in charge don't care.

 

[Tom A]

The demise of Kodachrome is a demise of an era. OK, so it was a finicky film to work with, blocked up shadows and fried highlights were common unless you got the exposure dead on. It was slow - I am old enough to remember shooting Kodachrome 10 - a steady hand - or a tripod!
It was available in 4x5 and also in 8x10 in the 30's and maybe into the 50's. I never tried that - but I have seen some "trannies" on a light table. Talk about awestruck.
It was a bitch to print with Cibachrome - two high contrast processes working together to stymie your efforts.
There are still several 1000's of K25 and K64 slides in my files - now and then I run them through the old Ektagraphic and enjoy color that in many ways only existed in Kodak's mind - not in reality.
Thanks for the link to Fortune magazine - this was from an era that showed man making things with his hands - not a robot assembling a product in an outsourced plant in a foreign country.

 

[chris91387]

Kodachrome 10? seriously? wow.

- chris

 

[Al Kaplan]

What was really gorgeous? Dye transfer prints from Kodachrome originals. Dye transfer seems to be another technology that's fallen by the wayside, too complicated, too time consuming, but the dyes were extremely stable.

ASA 25 Kodachrome II didn't hit the market until the early sixties. Before that Kodachrome was ASA 10, extremely contrasty, and still people complained that the new Kodachrome II was no good, not contrasty enough, softer colors, too much shadow detail...LOL

 

[Trius]

My most memorable Ciba prints were from K25 chromes exposed on overcast Fall days in Ontario, mostly in Grey county. When the stars aligned, magic ensued.

In looking at the photos from Fortune, it dawned on me that Kodachrome is the b&w photographer's colour film.

 

[Prosaic]

Great link, thanks!

 

[Uncle Bill]

Great link, I agree, Kodachrome was the black and white photographer's colour film.

 

[wayneb]

My favorites from this gallery are,
Walker Evans: http://bit.ly/UY8qJ
Eugene Smith: http://bit.ly/A58Ma
and Doisneau: http://bit.ly/iKNz2
all famous b/w photographers using kodachrome (doesn't seem to be 4x5 in these cases).

Wondering if there are books people can recommend highlighting the color/kodachrome work of these artists...

 

[35mmdelux]

As a kid I shot K25 for a short while before Kodak ramped it up to a "fast" K64. In mid 80's switched to K200, worked well with my Summicrons.

EDIT: The slide show was great, especially the 4x5 trannies. Would be great if Fortune put together a book of Kodachrome work, afterall they're publishers aint they.