"Mamma don't take my Kodachrome away"

KODACHROME 
1935-2010  
R.I.P

Photo. Image Permanence Institute

Kodachrome film was introduced in 1935 and was the first commercially successful chromogenic color process. A transparency, or slide, it is a one-of-a-kind direct positive image containing three emulsion layers. Although prints can be made from the slides. Each layer is dyed a subtractive color with cyan on the bottom, magenta in the middle and yellow as the top layer. The result is a positive image on transparent support. Two musicians "turned scientists" Leopold Godowsky Jr. and Leopold Mannes, employed at Kodak's research facility in Rochester, looking for a higher quality color film, experimented and the process was first used as 16 mm film. Within a year, film for still cameras was available but was extremely costly.The film is "basically black and white."  The dye is not added until the development process and this is what gave Kodachrome images the unique, very saturated color look. The color was fade resistant and very stable if stored properly. For the first twenty years of its production the Kodak laboratory controlled all the processing. In 1954 the Department of Justice declared Kodachrome processing a monopoly and Kodak was forced to allow other finishing facilities to process the film. The price of a roll of film,that originally had the processing cost added in, fell by 43%. This drop in price and increased options for processing brought Kodachrome into its heyday in the late fifties. But as early as 1936, Kodachrome was the film that captured a color version of the Hindenburg disaster. Sir Edmund Hilary took Kodachrome to the top of Mount Everest in 1953 and Abraham Zapruder using 8-mm Kodachrome "accidentally" recorded President Kennedy's assassination in Dallas. 

Kodachrome II was released in 1961. It was a faster and more versatile version of the film and was popular with the point and shoot generation. Super 8, a low-speed, fine-grain Kodachrome movie film was released in 1965. Both were popular for recording family events featured in Kodaslide projector shows and Super 8 film showings. Kodachrome was popularized in song by Paul Simon in 1973 and it was used extensively by National Geographic photographers. In 1948 National Geographic explored and photographed extensively a wilderness area in Utah and subsequently named it Kodachrome Basin State Park  It was changed to Chimney Rock State Park but a few years later was officially renamed Kodachrome Basin with Kodak's approval.

Steve McCurry shot one of the most iconic images of the 20th century in Kodachrome for National Geographic. 

Photo by Steve McCurry

By the 1980s video camcorders were in use and film producers like Fuji and Polaroid took over Kodachrome's market share. Kodak ended their film-processing in 1988 and gradually stopped film-manufacturing. "By 2008 Kodak was producing only one Kodachrome film run-- a mile-long sheet cut into 20,000 rolls-a year." On June 22, 2009 the Eastman Kodak Company announced that they would be discontinuing production of Kodachrome film. At that point it represented a fraction of 1% of their still film sales. 

Kodachrome 2010 Vimeo  Check out this great Vimeo that features the last lab, Dwayne's Photo in Parsons Kansas to process Kodachrome.

When Steve McCurry learned of the imminent demise of Kodachrome film,  he contacted Kodak's marketing head and persuaded her to give him the very last roll of film to come off the assembly line at the plant in Rochester. Kodak gave the last remaining rolls to the George Eastman House's Photography Museum but one last roll was "symbolically" shot by McCurry and his images, taken in India, New York, and Parsons Kansas, the home of Dwaynes Photo are known as Last Roll of Kodachrome.  His 36 images are a mixture of portraiture, photojournalism and street photography. McCurry has been shooting digital for quite a while but over the last 4 decades he has shot at least 800,000 Kodachrome frames. He maintains that he still has a few rolls of Kodachrome in his refrigerator just in case of a revival like with Polaroid. 

Fred Herzog - A Kodachrome Man

Kodachrome Finds New Life

see the article and more photographs in "The Design Observer Group"

photo by Fred Herzog

Fred Herzog started shooting Kodachrome slide film in 1953. It was his choice for the vivid color and he was aware of its excellent archival qualities. But at that stage of his life, he was not able to afford to have prints made from his slides so he just continued to shoot and store his images. 

Recently, Herzog discovered archival laser printing and his work is being shown and widely recognized as a significant body of work in the art world. 

In 2007 I heard the rumblings of the end of Kodachrome. I hadn't been a user. I mostly shot Tri-x but I thought it would be a good idea to get in on the last days and I just couldn't get that Paul Simon song out of my head. So I bought a few rolls and shot it in my 35 mm Canon and sent it off to Dwayne's and here are a few samples. The 2 sort of abstracts in yellow and red were taken at Mass Moca in North Adams.

E.Antaya

E.Antaya

E.Antaya

E.Antaya

References:

http://www.graphicsatlas.org/ Image Permanence Institute. web. 28 Apr. 2013.

http://stevemccurry.com/galleries/last-roll-kodachrome. "The Last Roll of Kodachrome." stevemccurry.com. web. 28 Apr. 2013

http://www.dwaynesphoto.com/ Dwayne's Photo. web. 28 Apr. 2013.

Engle, Dresden. "Saying 'Farewell' while celebrating 75 years of Kodachrome." George Eastman House Blog. 5 Jan. 2011. Web. 28 Mar. 2013

Foster, John. "Kodachrome Finds New Life." The Design Observer Group. 10 Mar. 2013. Web. 20 Mar. 2013.

Kodak. "Kodachrome discontinuance notice." Eastman Kodak Company. 22 June 2009. Web. 27 Apr. 2013.

Sudduth, Claire. "A Brief History of Kodachrome." Time. 23 June 2009. Web. 28 Apr. 2013.

Zander, Robin. "Kodachrome 2010." Vimeo. Web. 28 Apr. 2013.

ANSEL ADAMS (1902-1984) ARTIST/ ENVIRONMENTALIST

ANSEL ADAMS

"Moon and Half Dome" (1960) Ansel Adams

"The Tetons and the Snake River, Grand Teton National Park,
Wyoming" (1942). Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams is credited with bringing the magnificent views of the National Parks to millions of Americans, many of whom, earlier in the 20th century had never visited one. His photographs of the mountains, rivers,  lakes, waterfalls and sand dunes of Yellowstone, Yosemite, Denali, Glacier, Mount Rainier, Olympic, North Cascades, Sequoia, Death Valley National Parks and Monuments and others, helped to bring attention to the "national park idea." He travelled and wrote and spoke to environmental groups, students, Park Service leaders and the public and his photographs informed, influenced and inspired ordinary citizens, cabinet officers, newspaper editors, journalists, scholars and Presidents.  In the 1950s and 1960s he was a national figure as an artist and an environmentalist. William Turnage, in "Ansel Adams Our National Parks" stated that in the 1950s and1960s, "he was the only environmental advocate with easy access to the president." 

Adams was first and foremost an artist and a proponent of "straight photography." He was a member of the group known as the "Precisionist Photographers" that included Edward Weston and Imogen Cunningham. In 1930 he was a member of the informal "f/64" group that advocated large-format view cameras, small lens aperture and printing by contact rather than enlarging. Adams became famous for his precise and systematic process of photographing.  He was considered a master of the camera and darkroom. He taught at the Art Center School in Los Angeles and he and Fred Archer created what they called the Zone System.

ellaparkinsonphotography.wordpress.com

The Zone System is based on the principles of sensitometry ; the study of light sensitive materials and offers photographers the opportunity to visualize the photographic subject and have more control over the final result.  He considered it an "enabling technique" meant as a "rational and repeatable system" for obtaining the values in the final print  already visualized by the photographer. It could be applied to  black and white and color processes and digital photography.  Adams published many books, including a series of  technical "manuals" The Camera/Book 1, The Negative/Book 2 and The Print/ Book 3 that while somewhat obsolete in the digital era are considered classics by many "traditional" photographers.His images have been popularized in posters and calendars and numerous  art books.  

Adams's photographic work was not limited to images of the national parks. In 1943 he documented the Manzanar War Relocation Center in California and the Japanese Americans interned there during World War II.  He offered his collection of 242 original negatives and 209 prints to the Library of Congress in 1965. Those images can be viewed here:

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/anseladams/index.html

Yosemite National Park was where Adams spent a significant portion of his adult life. He made thousands of images contributing to the documentation of the park system as it existed in the middle of the 20th century. His images helped to create better parks and to protect the existing ones and had the effect of bringing more tourists into the parks as well as new awareness of the importance of protecting the natural environment of the parks. He was elected to the board of directors of the Sierra Club and had a leadership role in the organization until the early 1970s. In the 1930s when many of Adams's friends were turning their attention to social documentary, Adams was criticized for his obsession with "rocks" and his devotion to the aesthetic representation of his subject matter. But the 1930s were critical years in the history of conservation and Adams was bolstered by the knowledge that the photographers of the West, Carlton Watkins and William Henry Jackson each played a role in establishing Yosemite and Yellowstone as state parks in the latter half of the 19th century. He was convinced that his images could be aesthetic and serve social and political purposes. 

Courtesy of the Cedric Wright Family

References

Library of Congress, American Memory. "Ansel Adams's Photographs of Japanese-American Internment at Manzanar." Web. 11 April 2013.

Rosenblum, Naomi. "A World History of Photography. 3rd ed. Abbeville Press Publishers. New York. 1997.

Stillman, Andrea G. and William A Turnage, eds. "Ansel Adams, Our National Parks." Little, Brown and Company. Boston. 1992.

Spaulding, Jonathan. "Ansel Adams and The American Landscape. A Biography." University of California Press. Los Angeles. 1995. 

"Zone System" Wikipedia. (n.d.) Web. 11 April 2013.

Museum Records: Photographs

The National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) http://nmai.si.edu/home/

NMAI is a division of the Smithsonian Institution and has approximately 266,000 catalog records representing the arts and artifacts of all the major indigenous culture areas of the Western Hemisphere.

The Photographic Archive consists of approximately 324,000 images from the 1860s to the present. The Archive Center http://nmai.si.edu/explore/collections/archive/:

houses papers, records, photographs, recordings and ephemera concerning the historic and contemporary lives of Native Americans throughout the Western Hemisphere. Collection descriptions and fining aids can be found in the NMAI’s Collection Search Website: http://www.nmai.si.edu/searchcollections/home.aspx and through the Smithsonian Institution Resource Information System (SIRIS): http://www.siris.si.edu/

Less than 2% of the Archive Center’s collection of photographic objects can be viewed online but in addition to SIRIS and the collection search website, photographs can be found on Flickr Commons: http://www.flickr.com/photos/smithsonian/

The audiences for the collection are the general museum going public, students, researchers and the Native Americans represented in the collections.  One of the stated goals of the museum is to “serve as a thoughtful and honest conduit to Native cultures past and present.”  It also states a commitment to including “Native voices” in what they (the museum) “writes and presents.” The NMAI has gone through many changes since its original incarnation as the pet project of the wealthy industrialist George G. Heye. It began as a museum of anthropology and natural history but most recently it has been “returned” to the people it represents. It was the same year the Smithsonian acquired the NMAI and appointed its first Indian director that the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) was enacted by Congress.

Collection Level Record: “John Reed Swanton photographs of Southeastern American Indians, ca. 1900s-1910s.”

http://siris-archives.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1364599C3K808.56514&profile=all&source=~!siarchives&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001~!2283~!1&ri=1&

This collection record was pulled from SIRIS/ Archives, Manuscripts, Photographs Catalog (Images only) but the repository for this collection is the National Anthropological Archives at the Smithsonian Museum Support Center. It contains “restrictions” and “cite as” that indicate this collection is geared toward researchers. It links to the online finding aid for the collection and links to an image set of lantern slides. The explanation of the physical collection is briefly explained in the finding aid and also referred to in a more spread out form on the collection level record. There are nitrate negatives in cold storage, copy negatives have been made for “most of them” and all of the lantern slides and some of the prints have been digitized. The list of represented tribes in the collection is extensive (41).  There is not however an explanation for how to view the copy negatives, if that is possible, only that the originals are not available for viewing. There is also no reference in this collection record for the silver gelatin prints. The “Form/Genre” for this record states Lantern Slides so apparently this record refers to the digitized images of the Lantern Slides only.

http://siris-archives.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1364599C3K808.56514&profile=all&source=~!siarchives&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3

Searching across all the catalogs brought up a more extensive coverage of this collection. Searching from SIRIS in finding aids resulted in the record for the Lantern Slides only. This was a little confusing and took some time to discover.

http://collections.si.edu/search/results.htm?q=John+Reed+Swanton+photographs&image.x=35&image.y=8

The NMAI explains that “each item” in their collection is labeled with “basic, standardized” information and at the bottom of “Search the Collection page

http://www.nmai.si.edu/searchcollections/home.aspx

is a “Reference List (thesauri).”  With controlled terminologies and their respective hierarchies.

Its possible to search for photographs here. For example under “Object Specifics: Techniques Reference List” I was able to locate “Printing Techniques” in the broader category and “chromogenic” in the “specific” category and that resulted in 5 matches. But the thesauri is very limited as far as photographic techniques. The only technique listed under printing is chromogenic. A search in the "Collections Search" under "Artist/Individual-

Geronimo resulted in Silver Gelatin, Platinum Prints,Nitrate Negative, Albumen Print and one uncertain process they described as "copy of a carte de visite? All images of or with Geronimo.

Albumen Print


Item Level Records

"Copy of Carte de Visite?"

Platinum Print

Nitrate Negative

Silver Gelatin

Item Level Record: "The Vanishing Race" Edward S. Curtis

http://www.nmai.si.edu/searchcollections/item.aspx?irn=312086&catids=4&partytxt=Edward%20Curtis&src=1-2

 Not all of the records have titles "The Vanishing Race" has a title because it is associated with an artist and it came with a title. It has a lengthy explanation of Edward Curtis and his North American Indian Project. The cataloging conventions are similar to VRA Core but not as extensive. The item records from the Collections Search of the NMAI all specify whether or not the creator, photographer in this case is Indian or not. At the bottom of each of these item detail records it explains that sometimes images are accompanied by “Catalog card scans” and that they are provided to illustrate the information that originally accompanied the objects. It goes on to say, “Please recognize that unacceptable or offensive terminology represents historic date and not NMAI’s current usage.

This record and all the records of individual photographs in the NMAI web site are described accurately by photographic medium and also measurements are given. VRA Core 4 specifies height and width  but the dimensions with this record are not so specific, leaving it to the viewer to determine and it is easy to determine by looking at the image. The records in the NMAI Collections Search database are searchable by culture/peoples, material, technique and object type so there is the ability to search  very specifically. The records express the controlled terminologies that the museum has established but it is lacking in terminology for photographs in the thesauri. 

References:

Smithsonian, National Museum of The American Indian. Web. 30 March 2013

Crouch, Michelle. "Digitization as Repatriation? The National Museum of the Indian's Fourth Museum Project."

         Journal of Information Ethics. Spring 2010: 45-56. Metapress. Web. 8 March 2013.