RIP Kodachrome 1935-2010

Last June, Kodak announced it would no longer produce the Kodachrome film, one of the most beloved and best colour films known to photographers. Since then, labs processing this special film started to decrease, making Dwayne Labs in Parsons, Kansas USA the last one standing. But sadly, yesterday they processed their last roll of Kodachrome (they will continue to process other types of film, only Kodachrome processing has been discontinued).

From New York Times

The status of lone survivor is a point of pride for Dwayne Steinle, who remembers being warned more than once by a Kodak representative after he opened the business more than a half-century ago that the area was too sparsely populated for the studio to succeed. It has survived in part because Mr. Steinle and his son Grant focused on lower-volume specialties — like black-and-white and print-to-print developing, and, in the early ’90s, the processing of Kodachrome.

A CBS News Sunday Morning spot about the demise of the last Kodachrome processing plant.

Why can't good things last forever? I will leave you with this song written by Paul Simon,

Kodachrome
They give us those nice bright colors
They 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