I am usually opposed to nostalgia of all kinds. But I find economic nostalgia particularly misguided. Bad and obsolete businesses are supposed to go away. We shouldn't pine for products the marketplace can no longer support.
Progress means replacing the old stuff with newer and better stuff made by more efficient businesses. That's how we all improve our standard of living. It's creative destruction.
There are, however, exceptions.
Today Kodak announced it will end production of Kodachrome film. Those of a certain age will remember the first time you held up a slide and experienced the magical interplay of light and film.
And the colors. So sharp, so real. Kodachrome captured life as it is. If you doubt that, check out this iconic image.
It's a very different world from today's digital photography where every shot has been hopped up on Photoshop steroids that make the sky an unnatural deep purple and the colors so intense they burn holes in your retinas.
To be sure, film like Kodachrome had its drawbacks. You had to edit shots in your head. You couldn't snap away like you can with a digital camera, figuring you'll get lucky and keep the goods ones. Film is also an old technology that is hardly eco-friendly. Ever smell stop bath?
Film, however, required you to look around. To think a bit harder before you fired off a shot. And there was that moment of delight when appeared upside down and backwards.
If you are too young to understand the joys of this particular film, ask your parents to explain.
If they can't help you, ask Paul Simon [I struck Garfunkel on Scott's advice -- see below]:
Kodachrome, it gives us those nice bright colors
Gives 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 momma, don't take my Kodachrome away
Momma, don't take my Kodachrome away
Momma, don't take my Kodachrome away
Momma, don't take my Kodachrome away
Comments
What did that Garfunkel do anyway! Got to change that. Thanks. Ektachrome -- never could warm to that name.
Well colleague… you have beaten me to the punch with some Kodachrome nostalgia, but I am moved to add my two cents. You are right, Kodachrome did produce sharper pictures. That was because it had a much finer grain than other films. You could describe that as “spots of silver per inch”, sort of like pixels in today’s digital world.
But the big thing was the color, warmer, richer, there was nothing like it. That was because the dyes were introduced in the developing process, they were not present in the film when shot. That made Kodachrome unique.
It was also Kodachrome’s big downside. I could develop the cooler, grainier Ektachrome in my kitchen. Kodachrome required a score of separate chemical steps with very tight temperature tolerances. I, like almost everyone else, sent Kodachrome to Kodak for processing.
I must, however, call you out on the song. Art Garfunkel had nothing to do with it. Paul Simon wrote and performed "Kodachrome" on his pop classic There Goes Rhymin’ Simon, released in 1973. Three years after he and Art split up.