Obtaining negatives from Elegante Wedding Photography, former Kodak franchise

ted_smith · Jul 21, 2011

Hi

Back in 2002, before I was a serious photographer, I got married and used Elegante Wedding Photography (a Kodak franchise, I gather) to shoot our wedding.

When we ordered, they said they keep the negatives 'forever'. To be fair, we ordered the prints two years after we got married. In fairness, the pictures were fantastic. Anyway, they went bust in 2006 - I gather they were considered to be a bit of a plague in the wedding photography industry.

Anyway, my wife and I want to have one of the prints enlarged, nearly 10 years later!

Though the print looks great, and is a 10" x 8", knowing what I know now, I'd rather have an enlargement done from the negative.

Does anyone know if the negatives of weddings shot by Elegante Wedding Photography will still be available today? If so, from whom?

Many thanks

Ted

ted_smith · Jul 21, 2011

Hold the phone!

I called Kodak Head Office on 01442 261122 and they were familiar with the issue and put me through to a very helpful chap called Chris Mayo at Kodak Ltd, Boundary Way, Hemel hempstead, HP2 7YU (01442 846674). They have all the negatives from Elegante Wedding Photography and for a £25 admin fee, they will retrieve the negatives from their massive archive and sign them over to me so I can have my own prints produced from my own lab whenever I want!

Fantastic and very unexpected news. I thought I'd post this for anyone else who seeks their old negatives if they were photographed by that particular Kodak franchise.

tomalophicon · Jul 21, 2011

Great outcome there.

edp · Jul 21, 2011

That is good news. Unfortunate abbreviation of this thread's title in the forum, though: "Obtaining negatives from the now bust Kodak"

Rick A · Jul 21, 2011

That is great news indeed. If only life were that easy for everything else.

pentaxuser · Jul 21, 2011

Amazing. That's what you call a "thinking ahead customer oriented policy" Great news.

pentaxuser

MattKing · Jul 21, 2011

edp said:
That is good news. Unfortunate abbreviation of this thread's title in the forum, though: "Obtaining negatives from the now bust Kodak"

Possibly moderators could change the thread title to "Obtaining negatives from Elegante Wedding Photography (former Kodak franchisee, now out of business)"

ted_smith · Jul 21, 2011

I can't honestly believe that is the title I used! I don't doubt it, but blimey. My apologies Kodak! Didn't mean to phrase it like that.

2F/2F · Jul 21, 2011

Good news. Certainly more than I would have expected in the situation! Sometimes people surprise me...

ted_smith · Jul 22, 2011

Have just Googled the term again, and this thread now ranks 5th. So good news for any potential customers of the franchise. This is a thread I wish I had found when I was enquiring initially.

Incidentally, Google also shows the previous title, which was "Obtaining negatives from the now bust Kodak franchise, Elegante Wedding Photography". Not "Obtaining negatives from the now bust Kodak". So the rephrased title, whilst better, is not so far removed from what I put originally, which was not that mis-leading in my opinion. I did wonder...

MattKing · Jul 22, 2011

ted_smith said:
Incidentally, Google also shows the previous title, which was "Obtaining negatives from the now bust Kodak franchise, Elegante Wedding Photography". Not "Obtaining negatives from the now bust Kodak". So the rephrased title, whilst better, is not so far removed from what I put originally, which was not that mis-leading in my opinion. I did wonder...

Ted:

The problem with your former title wasn't what you said, but the fact that APUG tends to display just the first portion of a long title on many screens.

So although you wrote the whole thing, our screens tended to end with the words "now bust Kodak ........"

mwdake · Jul 22, 2011

I'm impressed they kept everything and had a plan should folks want their negatives.
I hate to say it but if it was over here they probably would of ended up in somebody's dumpster.
But, then again it was Kodak.

ted_smith · Jul 22, 2011

Matt

Forgive me...I mis-understood. Absolutely right.

Mwdake - I was quite astonished too. When I was told, by the person who arranged the shoot (not the actual photographer), that "they never destroy the negatives", it never occurred to me to think "what, not even if you go bust?". The fact that they did go bust, and yet the overarching parent Kodak still managed to collect and store all of the negatives from this franchise, and for them to be still available to customers 5 years after they went bust, and ten years after the wedding (just in my case) is amazing.

MattKing · Jul 22, 2011

Assuming that this is a franchisor/franchisee arrangement, it doesn't surprise me that the franchisor (Kodak) would retain or be entitled to claim possession of an asset as important as negatives.

It may be that it was Kodak that forced them out of business.

Franchise agreements tend to favour the franchisor .

Hassy120 · Dec 16, 2011

ted_smith said:
it never occurred to me to think "what, not even if you go bust?". The fact that they did go bust

Just to "correct" this post, Elegante didn't go bust. They were corporately murdered and closed down by Kodak as they didn't fit in with the Kodak brand. As a business they were still photographing over 350 weddings a week. A management buy out was dismissed as Kodak wanted the brand to close.

That said, its great that you managed to get the negs and a positive on Kodaks point that they archived them.

Obtaining negatives from Elegante Wedding Photography, former Kodak franchise

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