Kodachrome: Images made before WWII

PKM-25

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I love these images, even went out to Pie Town and photographed a man who appeared in one the old shots as a kid. But we need to be shooting these kinds of images now. This film should not pass on as a bunch of snaps looking like lens tests, pictures of cats and or rose bushes.

The Kodachrome I am shooting now is incredibly vibrant and rich, just like the good old days...There will be time to truly reminisce when the film is actually gone.

Kodachrome 25, Leica MP-3, 50mm 1.4 Summilux aspheric, 2008.
 

chop61

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Like polished jewels! As beautiful as the day the box of slides was opened and the shooter held one up to the light for a first look.

thanks, this made my day.
 

benjiboy

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Thanks Karl, a wonderful look of an America that has gone forever, we forget that life in those days went on in colour , I notice some of the slides have the round corners that the Kodachrome cardboard mounts had, I had all but forgotten about these.
 

p3200TMZ

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I just ordered 24 rolls of Kodachrome 64. I know I have to ship it back to the US for processing, but all the time and hassle will be worth it when I open one of the boxes of slides. I has been a long time since I have seen Kodachrome color, but much longer.

I guess compared to $5 a roll in 1938, which was a half a weeks wages, Kodachrome is a bargain. The equivalent today would be a price of about $250 per roll.

I would love to get my hands on some Kodachrome 25, but I guess those days are over...
 

nworth

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Excellent link. Interesting variability to the technical quality of the images, but the social content is what is important. I noticed the car photographed near the Golden Gate at Fort Cronkite. In another year that area would be closed to the public and would remain closed until the late 50s. The text mentions the attempts of the New Deal to improve the conditions for sharecroppers and braceros, but nothing much really happened until the late 60s.
 

Heinz_Anderle

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It is noteworthy that the first dedicated photo book with color illustrations printed from mostly Kodachrome slides, as well as the first technical textbook on color photography, were both published in Germany (K. P. Karfeld (ed.): Das farbige Leica-Buch, engl. version: The Leica book in color, with photographs by Anton Baumann, and H. A. Kluge: Foto in Farben, both 1938).

The dancers in Oklahoma appear to have been photographed on the very first generation of Kodachrome (1936 - 1938), which was processed using "controlled diffusion" and suffered from fading into purple. The improved version with selective post-exposure for reversal processing (to which the Austrian pioneer Dr. Karl Schinzel may have contributed) has remained stable. The grain is very fine, as I have noticed on scanning slides from 1959.
 

pentaxuser

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Thanks Karl. A history lesson with pictures that I might not have ever seen even if I had spent a lot of money on books.

pentaxuser
 

iamzip

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Incredible. Many of those images look absolutely amazing. I just discovered slide film this year - before then, I simply thought it was used for slides. Some trouble getting the colors right while scanning has discouraged me, but I think I really need to learn how to get it right, and shoot some Kodachrome before it is too late.
 

Frank Szabo

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Thanks so much for posting those photos.

The scary part is the majority of those in the photos probably wouldn't recognize the country they helped to build due to the direction it's taken.
 

Thanasis

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Nice. Thanks for the link. I notice some of these appeared on shorpy.com as well with a bit more saturation.
 

benjiboy

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To me the most amazing thing about Kodachrome is it was invented by two men Leopold Godowski, and Leopold Mannes, who were not scientists, or photo chemists, but professional classical musicians with an interest in photo chemistry since high school who before being sponsored by Kodak, did much of the R&D work in hotel bedrooms !
 
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Edwardv

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Thanks for sharing. I sure do miss Kodachrome 120.
 

iamzip

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I'd like to hear that story, being a musician myself...
 
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