Steve McCurry after Kodachrome: "I don't use film anymore"

borgunto · Jun 18, 2013

Last weekend the great Steve McCurry was in Siena, Tuscany, for the inauguration of his exhibition. I had the opportunity of an interview. Here's what he told me about film photography:

http://www.damianofedeli.it/english/2013/06/mccurry-after-kodachrome-i-dont-use-film-anymore/

clayne · Jun 18, 2013

Don't really know what to say. Surely Steve knows digital isn't possible of rewarding him with the same goods but maybe we're all high and should be out picking up $600 cell phones. Not gonna change the opinion of the medium I prefer though.

borgunto · Jun 18, 2013

clayne said:
Not gonna change the opinion of the medium I prefer though.

Cristopher, that's exactly what I think!

fastw · Jun 18, 2013

Guess, for him it's just a tool

markbau · Jun 18, 2013

I used Kodachrome from 1977 until about 1990, looking back I don't understand why it was so popular, it was very contrasty, often blocking up shadows even when exposure was spot on and it never met a green that it didn't hate. What was worse is that its colour rendition changed markedly depending on its age. I changed to Fujichrome and never looked back. And anyhow, who is Steve McCurry?

hoffy · Jun 18, 2013

Clearly, McCurry’s analog heart is tied to that film and, now, he admits not to use film any longer. Required of an opinion on the possibility for everybody nowadays to shoot with cell phones, he answered me: “I think it’s great: why not? I don’t even know what Instagram is, but if people enjoy photography that’s a good thing. I think that more people making pictures with cell phones, iPads or whatever, is fun, so why not? It’s a way to share your experience

I think that is a very well put statement. In reality, why should we care how others take their photos? As long as they are enjoying it all, thats all that matters.

borgunto · Jun 18, 2013

hoffy said:
I think that is a very well put statement. In reality, why should we care how others take their photos. As long as they are enjoying it all, thats all that matters.

I agree!

TheFlyingCamera · Jun 18, 2013

hoffy said:
I think that is a very well put statement. In reality, why should we care how others take their photos. As long as they are enjoying it all, thats all that matters.

I agree for the most part. Especially when you consider the adage: "what's the best camera for the job? The one you have with you at the time". The only way I disagree is in that the respect ought to be both ways - others should not care how we take pictures either, so long as we're enjoying it.

removed account4 · Jun 18, 2013

good for him ..
at least he is honest ...

people who use cameras for a hobby have no idea what it means
to have one's livelihood tied to a medium ... and then have the
rug pulled out from under them ...

mr mccurry has certainly made his mark, and he left the room with people still in awe and clapping ..

Noble · Jun 18, 2013

A lot of insecure people on here. He liked a particular emulsion and now it is gone. That's nothing to even notice let alone circle the film wagons about. I think his innocuous statement has really been taken the wrong way and blown out of proportion. I guess it drives up page views à la KR style.

markbau said:
And anyhow, who is Steve McCurry?

Finishing off your pontification with this question hurts your credibility on a photography website. Did you read the article or look at the pictures that accompanied the article? Even for non photographers his images are instantly recognizable whether they know his name or not.

semi-ambivalent · Jun 18, 2013

Noble said:
A lot of insecure people on here.

ad hominem

Noble said:
Even for non photographers his images are instantly recognizable whether they know his name or not.

Extremely talented, Mr. McCurry has been both blessed and cursed by a single photograph he took in the 1980s. That photograph is the only "images" most people think of at the mention of "McCurry".

s-a

BrianShaw · Jun 18, 2013

markbau said:
I used Kodachrome from 1977 until about 1990, looking back I don't understand why it was so popular, it was very contrasty, often blocking up shadows even when exposure was spot on and it never met a green that it didn't hate. What was worse is that its colour rendition changed markedly depending on its age. ...

I thought that but wasn't going to speak it out loud or write it down for fear of being beaten by an angry mob.

I don't miss Kodachrome too much.

removed account4 · Jun 18, 2013

BrianShaw said:
I thought that but wasn't going to speak it out loud or write it down for fear of being beaten by an angry mob.

I don't miss Kodachrome too much.

you won't hear any angry words from me brian ...
i don't think i ever used it ...

borgunto · Jun 18, 2013

The point is not Kodachrome but – in this case – film in general. McCurry (who doesn’t know him can simply google the name) has been considered for a lot of time a “film ambassador” and now he says that he is not anymore using not only Kodachrome (that’s obvious) but any other film or slide...

BrianShaw · Jun 18, 2013

Well, in that case... when film becomes unavailable or unprocessable I'll move on too. I can afford to hold out longer then mcCurry and his peers.

Klainmeister · Jun 18, 2013

For a color photographer, one in particular who travels a lot, I don't see why he wouldn't be shooting digital nowadays.

Vonder · Jun 18, 2013

I have a love-hate relationship with Kodachrome. Loved 25, hated 64. More correctly, despised 64. But yeah, ok, shoot whatever you want to shoot. Nobody's gonna stop you. Until they take YOUR "Kodachrome" away. Been there, done that, thanks Fuji for yanking Reala and Astia from me.

dorff · Jun 18, 2013

desertratt said:
I've been taking photographs since 1947 and professionally since before 1960 and I never heard of Steve McCurry so who cares?

Then you don't read a lot on photography. Which in itself is your loss, not anybody else's.

As for the sentiments expressed: A working pro will of course have a different perspective to a bunch of analogue weekend and holiday shooters. Take it for what it is. It is not as if McCurry has pronounced film dead, or is in a position to do so. One can of course also learn from him, in that one has to have an eye on the future of one's craft, and cannot stake it all on a single company with a rocky recent history.

MDR · Jun 18, 2013

Steve Mccurry went nearly 100% Digital before the End of Kodachrome the Kodachrome thing was just marketing nothing else. He is a good photographer no doubt but his choice of medium shouldn't concern me or other photographer it's his personal choice nothing else.

PKM-25 · Jun 18, 2013

MDR said:
Steve Mccurry went nearly 100% Digital before the End of Kodachrome the Kodachrome thing was just marketing nothing else. He is a good photographer no doubt but his choice of medium shouldn't concern me or other photographer it's his personal choice nothing else.

Exactly, like a lot of NG photogs, he went digital awhile ago, heck I was forced to back in 1994. Unfortunately what happened to quite a few of these seasoned chrome shooters is that they lost their style when they went digital and they only went because they felt forced to in some ways. But not all of them have completely abandon film as in David Alan Harvey's case in using medium format Tri-X for several ongoing projects.

I don't think it is really good for this site's cause to call sour grapes on people who switch methods of image gathering and for those who say silly things like "Who is Steve McCurry" you know as well as I do how dumb that sounds when you can simply google him and see. Why don't you say what you really mean and parrot out "I don't really care who no longer uses film, I do and will".

Next year will mark my 20th year in using digital for full time pro work. Personally, I am ready to be done with it, overdue in fact. But what I might be ready to be done with more is the internet due to topics like these that make people look like a bunch of whiners. There is one member here who will attest to my reaching the boiling point over the weekend in terms of the web as I totally unplugged from Facebook after too much BS about the industry as well as other factors.

It's just the same old stuff in this kind of thread, someone does not use film anymore, some people did not like Kodachrome, some people did not like Kodachrome 64, blah, blah, blah.....do you even shoot anymore or just talk about it?

BrianShaw · Jun 18, 2013

PKM-25 said:
... some people did not like Kodachrome, some people did not like Kodachrome 64, blah, blah, blah.....do you even shoot anymore or just talk about it?

LOL

Mustafa Umut Sarac · Jun 18, 2013

Lets clarify , Steve Mccurry is a man that Kodak gave the last roll of kodachrome to shoot. What he did ? He found a 40 dollars autofocus Nikon camera and finished it. I think We must not get him serious.

PKM-25 · Jun 18, 2013

Mustafa Umut Sarac said:
Lets clarify , Steve Mccurry is a man that Kodak gave the last roll of kodachrome to shoot. What he did ? He found a 40 dollars autofocus Nikon camera and finished it. I think We must not get him serious.

OK, clarification it is then.

Eastman Kodak Co. chose Steve McCurry to shoot the last roll of Kodachrome that was manufactured. He shot it in a $2,449.00 Nikon F6 along with a D700 to check lighting until it was absolutely perfect then exposed the film. He was sponsored in part by National Geographic as he chose to shoot the things that resonated with him be it overseas in India or hanging out in Robert Deniro's home theatre in NYC. By all accounts, while he did not surpass the emotion of "Afghan Girl" he did do the film justice in term of it's color palate, nuance and chose fine subject matter.

Dwayne Steinle, owner and namesake of the lab in Parsons Kansas shot the last roll to ever be processed as it was at the end of the 100+ roll batch that I saw emerge. I shot the last roll in terms of it's chronological order and had over 50 rolls on that last batch that came out on January 17th, 2011...*the* last images ever shot on Kodachrome film that was processed in official Kodak K-14 chemisty.

Jeff Jacobson shot quite a few rolls up until the last day and has come out with a wonderful book with some very dreamy and personal images called "The Last Roll". If I can ever stay off the web long enough, I will come out with my book which is looking *really* good called, "The Kodachrome Project".

Clarification complete....

jglass · Jun 18, 2013

PKM-25 said:
It's just the same old stuff in this kind of thread, someone does not use film anymore, some people did not like Kodachrome, some people did not like Kodachrome 64, blah, blah, blah.....do you even shoot anymore or just talk about it?

Well, PKM-25, no one is forcing you to read the thread, much less comment on it or complain about its tone. I'm sure you've heard that before as well. It's really a bit arrogant to tell people to go take pictures rather than discuss things they're worried about. I feel sure most of us do this when shooting is not an option, ie. stolen moments at work, etc. Many of us also steal moments to do a little shooting, too, but sometimes we just worry out loud.

To the original post, I would say I only care about high-profile photographers like McCurry giving up film if it hurts the availability of film for me. Many of us are worried, not about some other photographer's choice, but about our own choices being curtailed or terminated because no one buys enough film. We're worried about the impoverishment of the art form due to the demise of the medium we love.

Whether another world-renowned photographer's giving up film has a cascading effect on others' purchase of film, and thus on my ability to get it, I don't know. But the concern about that effect is why I read these threads, myself. Whether these types of threads are helpful to the survival of film, I doubt. But give us all a break, sometimes people who love something and are worried about it just need to do some hand-wringing about it to release the tension!

removed account4 · Jun 18, 2013

SNIP

PKM-25 said:
Personally, I am ready to be done with it, overdue in fact. But what I might be ready to be done with more is the internet due to topics like these that make people look like a bunch of whiners. There is one member here who will attest to my reaching the boiling point over the weekend in terms of the web as I totally unplugged from Facebook after too much BS about the industry as well as other factors.

It's just the same old stuff in this kind of thread, someone does not use film anymore, some people did not like Kodachrome, some people did not like Kodachrome 64, blah, blah, blah.....do you even shoot anymore or just talk about it?

there is a thread a week like this here on apug, and has been for years.
yes, people are whiners, but aren't they allowed to whine and empathize with eachother ?
photography is their hobby, and when they see a "big name" bailing, well, it can't be good ...
its not hard, to ignore threads like this ..

Steve McCurry after Kodachrome: "I don't use film anymore"

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