We'll Miss You, Kodachrome

The photos had a sort of poetry about them
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 28, 2010 6:22 PM CDT

The last frames of Kodachrome film have largely been developed, yet another milestone in the transition from analog to digital, but this is no cause for celebration for Matt Zoller Seitz. Kodachrome photos had "something truly special" about them, he writes at Salon. "The dyes and emulsions produced an effect comparable to Technicolor motion picture film." The resulting photos were "luminous and warm but not garish; in some inexpressible way, they seemed to capture the sensation of remembering the past, fixing nostalgia along with people and places."

Heck, they even inspired a love song. (Listen to Paul Simon in the video gallery.) "To shoot a roll of film was to take a leap of faith," writes Seitz. "The digital evolution has eliminated a lot of uncertainty from the process, and that's probably a net gain—especially if you're an amateur shutterbug. Unfortunately, some other, wonderful elements have disappeared as well: mystery, poetry and the element of chance." (More Kodachrome stories.)

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