Thursday, December 30, 2010

Kodachrome's Obituary

©Steve McCurry - Afghan Girl shot on Kodachrome
Kodachrome was pronounced dead today at 12 p.m. central time in Parsons, Kansas at the age of 75. It was introduced to the world on April 15, 1935. Its untimely passing was due to a new, rampant and destructive disease that has infected many areas of our lives called "digital laziness." Kodachrome was announced terminally ill by Kodak on June 22, 2009 when they quit manufacturing the film. It finally met its end today as Dwayne's Photos will process the last rolls of this remarkable film.

Kodachrome led a good life and revolutionized an industry and the way that the world saw and recorded color. It broke down the barriers of color migration and made the vision of full and vibrant color in motion pictures and later in the photographic still consumer market a reality.

Kodachrome rewarded generations of skilled users with a richness of color and a unique treatment of light. It stands as a photographic landmark of photography's golden age. A state park in Utah was named after this wonderful film, Kodachrome Basin. Paul Simon wrote a legendary sing entitled Kodachrome. National Geographic's most famous pictures were shot using this film.

“It’s more than a film, it’s a pop culture icon,” said Todd Gustavson, a curator from the George Eastman House, a photography museum in Rochester in the former residence of the Kodak founder. “If you were in the postwar baby boom, it was the color film, no doubt about it.”

The film was invented by two professional musicians: Leopold Godowsky, Jr. and Leopold Mannes. It truly could be considered to be heralded as a moment of heaven meets earth. This relationship was emphasized by playing off of the names of the inventors in a famous saying describing how remarkable the film was to the people of that day, that "Kodachrome was made by God and Man."

It is survived by some wonderful negative films and a few slide films and thankfully some wonderful black and white films. It is also survived by many processes much older than itself such as wet collodion and tintype which has made a surprising resurgence in part to the same disease that killed Kodachrome. 

It was proceeded in passing by Polaroid, some Fuji films, Kodak paper, Agfa Films and many others. 

You will be missed Kodachrome!


Lyrics to Paul Simons "Kodachrome"


When I think back
On all the crap I learned in high school
It's a wonder
I can think at all
And though my lack of education
Hasn't hurt me none
I can read the writing on the wall

Kodachrome
You give us those nice bright colors
You 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
And brought them all together for one night
I know they'd never match
My sweet imagination
And everything looks better* in black and white

Kodachrome
You give us those nice bright colors
You 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


*Paul Simon sometimes switches this word between better and worse. I obviously elected to list better for obvious reasons.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Sky Fishing

Saturday, November 20, 2010

For the Birds

Friday, November 19, 2010

Catch of the Day

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Fall Waves

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Untitled

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Pollock Reincarnated

Monday, November 15, 2010

Fishing Angels

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Escalante's View

Christmas in July

Saturday, November 13, 2010

G TE No. (More from Geneva Steel)

Friday, November 12, 2010

Welcome to Geneva Steel


This is an old picture that I recently rediscovered from a project I wanted to do on Geneva Steel before it was demolished. Sadly it never happened but there could still be hope that I could give them life. We'll see.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Nice A

Friday, October 15, 2010

Stairway to Escher

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Boiler Room in the key of Minor

Friday, September 3, 2010

Did you ever notice that in a forest no two trees look alike?

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Childhood Past

Friday, August 27, 2010

Staring Into the Dark of Day

Thursday, August 26, 2010

The Blank Page Is...

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Off Path

Monday, August 23, 2010

Tree Drop

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Contemplation of a Dichotomy

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Maine Antique

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Havasu







Thursday, April 1, 2010

Pictures from the Farm - 4





Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Pictures from the Farm - 3





Stars & Stripes





I got an email today from a former TA of mine at BYU, his name is Kyle Morgan and is currently deployed in Iraq. Here is the email in a nutshell: "So there I was in the middle of Iraq reading the Stars and Stripes and I see a picture of you teaching a 4x5 class at Utah Lake. I thought that was a bit crazy. Anyways I thought you'd like to know about your few seconds of fame." I thought it was fifteen minutes of fame but I guess I'll settle for what I can get. This was a picture of me that Mark Johnston had taken for an article in The Daily Herald. Kind of random but fun to think military all over the world saw that image. Sorry Emily:)

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Pictures from the Farm - 2





Monday, March 29, 2010

Pictures from the Farm





Friday, March 26, 2010

Ode to Avedon

These are a couple images I took at my Mom's 60th birthday party last weekend. It is my nephew Spencer, who was for the most part cooperative. I let myself be inspired by Richard Avedon's In The American West project. It seemed the perfect approach when I saw him rolling around in the dirt wearing that outfit. I think they turned out fun. Thanks for playing with me Spencer.


Thursday, March 25, 2010

New Project .5

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Created in the image of...



Monday, March 22, 2010

The Daily Herald

Mark Johnston a photographer for The Daily Herald here in Provo has been asking me for a while to let him tag along and do an article and photo essay about me and how I teach and photograph using large format cameras and film. Mark took this particular class from me a few semesters back. The article comes out today so if you get The Daily Herald be sure and check it out. For everyone else, here is a link to the article so that you can read it as well. A thank you to Mark for the article. Let me know what you think.


"A Patient Process"

Monday, March 15, 2010

Family Reunion

I have been attempting to go through and start organizing my pictures. What that means is that there is the possibility of discovering some forgotten pictures that deserve a little stage time. So in the next couple weeks and months there should be lots of "new" pictures to put up on the blog. These will be random and in no particular order:)

This is a picture of my dad and his siblings. (minus his oldest sister who is serving a mission in Jordan) It was from a family reunion last summer taken on the steps of my Grandma and Grandpa Lovell's old house.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

New Project .4

 
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