The "Kodak Girl" at work!

[Changeling1]

I didn't know there was a "Kodak Girl" but maybe some of the old timers around here knew her personally. This is how she looked in.....
1913! ;- )

 

[mark]

I hate to mention this but if holding a set of negs up to a window is part of film development then there is a problem. Gives new meaning to DBI.

 

[Andy K]

Cool. I think she may also have turned up in The Complete Amateur Photographer by Dick Boer. Published 1948. Here she is making contact prints with a desk light, and also demonstrating different camera techniques.

 

[argus]

Andy,

There are great words of wisdom under the title The Miniature Camera, expecially the last sentence.

G

 

[Andy K]

Mark, holding negs up to a window isn't 'part of development' but it is usually the first thing I do when they come out of the final rinse.

 

[Andy K]

Andy,

There are great words of wisdom under the title The Miniature Camera, expecially the last sentence.

G

The whole book is full of great reading. It covers plate, large medium and 35mm formats, cameras and accessories. Composition, develo[pment, enlarging. Bw and colour, stereoscopic photography, home movies... you should hunt down a copy!

 

[127]

There's an excellent website devoted totally to her www.kodakgirl.com - She lasted about 50 years (without getting any older - kind of like Dr Who), and even had theme music!

The old Kodak publications are really excellent - I've got one from the 1930's "photographing colored objects", dealing with spectral responses. It's FAR better than any of the modern rubbish that gets written on filters and the like.

Ian

 

[BWGirl]

I kinda like the tag line on the 'Kodak Girl' ad... "The experience is in the tank."

 

[JHannon]

My friend recently closed his camera store after 49 years. He was about to throw out several old Kodak ads and I kept one of them. It was a life size display "cutout" of a woman in a bathing suit holding a Kodak camera with the Kodak logo. Looks like 1950's style. I don't know if it is in the style of the "Kodak Girl" or not.

I still have it stored away and will take a photo and post it when I get back home. My other prized possessions he gave me for helping are a large lighted Kodak clock and an ansco film wall thermometer. It will always remind me of his store.

--John

 

[laz]

The whole book is full of great reading. It covers plate, large medium and 35mm formats, cameras and accessories. Composition, develo[pment, enlarging. Bw and colour, stereoscopic photography, home movies... you should hunt down a copy!

http://newbibliophile.ammonet-servi...omplete+amateur+photographer,author=dick+boer

 

[Lee L]

I kinda like the tag line on the 'Kodak Girl' ad... "The experience is in the tank."

It's what I noticed as well. Prophetic, wasn't it? Tank, bread line, unemployment line...

Lee

 

[Photo Engineer]

There have been many Kodak Girls. I have lots of pictures that I cannot show, as I don't own the rights to them but they would illustrate the changes over the years.

If anyone is interested, I could perhaps refer you to someone with a history of this. The local educational TV station is preparing a historical perspective of this.

PE

 

[JHannon]

I have lots of pictures that I cannot show, as I don't own the rights to them

PE

You are making me feel like a criminal.

 

[Mick Fagan]

Well I looked up the link for the book supplied by laz and saw three links, one for 4 Pounds, one for $54.76 US with the final one being an Australian site for $12.00 AUD.

I telephoned the Australian site, and spoke to the fella who owns the service, bought the book with postage for $18.00 in total.

I found out that it was his book on the American site, check the stock numbers out, and that he only received $12.00 from the American site regardless of what they charged.

An interesting insight to web business, or any other onselling business I suppose.

Speaking to the online seller he asked me how I searched this book, when I told him exactly how I came to be buying his book and where I first saw a small review, for want of better terminology, from Andy K, he sort of went, "yeah, right".

Mick.

 

[Andy K]

Mick, I think you'll enjoy it. The copy in Laz's links is a reprint from 1959 ten years after the copy I have, so no doubt it'll be updated somewhat. There are some great illustrations and much of the advice given is still relevant today, even if some of the materials mentioned are no longer used. Other times materials are mentioned which I have no experience of and have no idea if they are still used, for example:

'A most unusual film has recently been put on the market under the name Controtipo Diretto (Ferrania). If this film is put in developer without being exposed it turns completely black. But if it is exposed to light before development, it becomes less dense the more it is exposed. So if a negative is printed on the film, it develops up to give a negative. Hence the name, which means "direct duplicate".'

 

[laz]

Well I looked up the link for the book supplied by laz and saw three links, one for 4 Pounds, one for $54.76 US with the final one being an Australian site for $12.00 AUD.

Glad you found the links helpful. It was just a "quick and dirty" search on my part, when I get a chance I'll see if I can find a reasonable copy stateside.

FWIW one of the reasons I got out of the rare/used book biz was the advent of this global market. As a reader I absolutly love it and it is a wonderful thing, but spending most of my time on the 'net to sell (as one has to to profit) was not what I wanted to do.

-Bob

 

[Changeling1]

Take a Kodak with you!

You are making me feel like a criminal.

Look at this one- folks are scanning these oldies and making Giclee prints and selling them (for a hefty profit)!!!

You can tell this young lady knows her way around a folder!

 

[laz]

Look at this one- folks are scanning these oldies and making Giclee prints and selling them (for a hefty profit)!!!

Here is the copyright laws applied to works produced before 1978. Basicly if the image was made before 1949 it is now more or less in the public domain:

Under the law in effect before 1978, copyright was secured either on the date a work was published or on the date of registration if the work was registered in unpublished form. In either case, the copyright lasted for a first term of 28 years from the date it was secured. The copyright was eligible for renewal during the last (28th) year of the first term. If renewed, the copyright was extended for a second term of 28 years.1 If not renewed, the copyright expired at the end of the first 28-year term. The term of copyright for works published with a year date in the notice that is earlier than the actual date of publication is computed from the year date in the copyright notice.

 

[Photo Engineer]

You are making me feel like a criminal.

It wasn't my intent. The material you have was published and can be used, but some of the stuff I have are test prints that were not used and therefore cannot be published. They are just curiosities to be destroyed someday.

I found them in an old drawer. Some of them are pictures in which the "Kodak Girl" is the daughter of a friend, and therefore somehow was saved in my files. Actually, I thought I had given them all to him but a few still turned up here. Since he took the photos for Kodak, either he or Kodak owns the copyright and I cannot use them at all, not that I intend to.

But, the point is that there were many "Kodak Girls" some in published pictures and others just in test shots. Lots of those floated around within Kodak and were used as test negatives for making prints used in seasoning runs, color balance tests and etc. We often used a standard negative and made dozens of prints for dye stability tests.

PE

 

[JHannon]

It wasn't my intent. The material you have was published and can be used, but some of the stuff I have are test prints that were not used and therefore cannot be published. They are just curiosities to be destroyed someday.

PE

No problem here PE, I didn't know they were test prints. It sounds like an interesting find! It would be interesting to see them if they are ever able to be released...

Regards,
John