Kodachrome, alex webb...

[dxphoto]

So no one is processing kodachrome, while i still have a few rolls left in the fridge.... any creative ideas what I can do with them...
It's Alex Webb's favorite film, what does he use now?? anyone knows?

 

[Dr.Pain-MD]

You can still process it as b&w.

 

[StorminMatt]

I personally am saving my leftover Kodachrome on the slim chance that SOMEBODY might be able to process it at some time in the future as it was MEANT to be processed (K14). I DO realize the chances of this are rather slim. But I'm not going to try to do something 'creative' with it for a couple of reasons. First, if I want B+W, the fact is that conventional B+W film will give me better results pretty much every time. If you want B+W slides (which is what I presume many might think of using Kodachrome for), you're certainly going to get better results buying something like Tri-X, FP4+, TMAX, or Delta 100 and having it processed by dr5. The same goes for B+W film processed in the conventional way for negatives. So I'm just going to sit on it while going with better alternatives. And secondly, on the slim chance that someone DOES start offering K14 processing in the future, I would certainly like to have a few rolls of Kodachrome laying around to shoot (which I didn't waste doing something that could be done better with available film and processing).

 

[holmburgers]

There is a guy on APUG, A_Caver, who is experimenting with a form of color processing for Kodachrome. It's promising...

Or, you could go to the extreme measures outlined in this patent to separate the color layers -> http://www.google.com/patents?id=0UJHAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

[railwayman3]

I'm also keeping my spare Kodachrome in the freezer for the same reasons as StorminMatt.

TBH, I'm not optimistic that any K-14 processing will be successfully resurrected, certainly not to the original standards of quality. But, at worst, there may be something "experimental" appear which could be more interesting that just using the film for B&W, with possibly unrealiable quality of the results.

 

[mrred]

The film is prbably worth more as a silver reclaim, then anything else.

 

[Mike Wilde]

My 1 last roll of Kodakchrome (was a 200 version, 35mm cassette) has joined the last K roll of double 8mm movie film, and sundry mailers to Canadian Kodak Labs, in my display cabinet.

 

[Matt Brown]

So no one is processing kodachrome, while i still have a few rolls left in the fridge.... any creative ideas what I can do with them...
It's Alex Webb's favorite film, what does he use now?? anyone knows?

Alex is shooting with a digital Leica now. He has a new body of work shot with that Leica that can be seen here - http://blog.leica-camera.com/leica-and-magnum/leica-magnum-alex-webb-in-chicago/

I love Alex's work (kind of like if Lee Friedlander had become a photojournalist) and his book "The Suffering of Light" is absolutely beautiful...but looking at this new work, I can't help but lament that oh-so-digital looking color palette.

 

[PKM-25]

Alex is a friend of mine, I love his work on Kodachrome, especially from Instanbull and Cuba. I will see him this June so I will ask him what he is using, but I am willing to bet it is an M9...I have used it on jobs...it's no Kodachrome 200 and never will be...

 

[amsp]

Alex is a friend of mine, I love his work on Kodachrome, especially from Instanbull and Cuba. I will see him this June so I will ask him what he is using, but I am willing to bet it is an M9...I have used it on jobs...it's no Kodachrome 200 and never will be...

Tell him to start using film again, those shots looked extremely boring compared to his work on film and that made me sad

 

[clayne]

Tell him to start using film again, those shots looked extremely boring compared to his work on film and that made me sad

The shots referenced by this quote and the post higher up about his latest shots with the M9 are crap and should never have been endorsed by either Leica or Magnum.

With the flood of similar snapshot-driven-nonsense, do we have no standards anymore?

 

[brucemuir]

Too bad Maxwell Street is no more

 

[MaximusM3]

Tell him to start using film again, those shots looked extremely boring compared to his work on film and that made me sad

I agree, fully. Must be digi-disease because if no one had told me it was Alex Webb, I would have thought the images were off one of the thousands Flickr pages of clueless people shooting an M9. Kodachrome is not and never will be, but the problem goes much deeper than that.

 

[clayne]

I agree, fully. Must be digi-disease because if no one had told me it was Alex Webb, I would have thought the images were off one of the thousands Flickr pages of clueless people shooting an M9. Kodachrome is not and never will be, but the problem goes much deeper than that.

Correct. It's not about the emulsion he was using previously it was the fact that he was not using feedback-driven visualization (shoot-chimp-shoot) and shots that actually cost something.

This is so commonly what digital does to people. It lifts a large amount of limitations and the common result is non-creative uninspired poo.

I know you're reading this Alex. Go back and shoot film.

 

[MaximusM3]

Correct. It's not about the emulsion he was using previously it was the fact that he was not using feedback-driven visualization (shoot-chimp-shoot) and shots that actually cost something.

This is so commonly what digital does to people. It lifts a large amount of limitations and the common result is non-creative uninspired poo.

I know you're reading this Alex. Go back and shoot film.

You nailed it there, and I know because I fell for that as well. When the M9 came out, I got sucked into one and, almost immediately, it turned my world into mostly boring, flat, snapshot crap. I realized it fairly quickly and tried to save myself by shooting only b&w JPG and covering that damn ugly and silly screen with duct tape. Then of course I realized that I should have been shooting film all along and making prints in the darkroom instead of wasting my time and money. I'm sure Webb must have his reasons but the demise of Kodachrome just doesn't sound like a good one.

Not to derail the thread...I have maybe 20 rolls of K25 still in cryogenic freeze No process will make them as good as any b&w film out there, and since they can no longer deliver the colors they were designed to deliver, I will simply let them rest in peace. Kodachrome: no color = no good.