kodachrome the end
A postal project, video work, and I am, as we speak, working on making it into a book.
In may 2010 I learnt that Kodak were going to stop making the chemicals to process Kodachrome, the last lab would therefore have to stop processing in Dec'10.
I sent a roll of Kodachrome to Flickr Photographers who lived near the dissused labs and asked them to take a photo.
The packet that came with the film had addresses of labs & P.O boxes to which you sent your film to be processed, over the years Kodak had shut the labs but you still could send your film to the address in Switzerland and Kodak would then send it to Dwayne's Lab.
I messaged Flickr film users that lived near the addresses on the packet and asked if they would like to help me with my project. I then sent the keen ones a roll of Kodachrome and asked them to take a couple of photos of the address, they could use the rest of the roll as they wished.
The photographer in Hawaii was such a fan of Kodachrome, she had named her dog after it.
The photographers sent the exposed rolls to Switzerland and I received the slides from Dwayne's, keeping the slides of the addresses and returning the others. (This process in some cases took longer than expected and a couple of rolls missed the dec'10 deadline for processing and were developed as B&W, resulting in orange/black images. The roll from Mexico was late and blank).
The photographs were printed as Cibachromes, just before the last photo lab printing them shut as ilford stopped producing the chemicals.
Belgium: Steenstraat 20, 1800 Koningslo-Vilvoorde by Willem Blancke
Canada: Box 1400, Station W, Toronto, Ontario M6M 5C8 by view[ ¤ ]finder
Denmark: Roskildevej 16, 2620 Albertslund by Thomas Kjær
Deutschland: Postfach 600 345, 7000 Stuttgart 60 by stevoi
Espana: Apartado de Correos 130, Colmenar, Viejo-Madrid by lux & pixel
Greece: PO Box 8253, GR100 10, Athens by Korax67
France: Rond-Point George Eastman, 93270 Sevran by frere jaques
Italia: Casella Postale 11057, 20100 Milan by i a i a
Japan: Imagica Corp, PO Box 200, Kyobashi, Tokyo by gullevek
Mexico: Administracion de Correos 68, Mexico 22 D.F. C.P. 04870 by toltequita
Nederland: Treubstraat 11, 2288EG, Rijswijk Z.H by emiel_dk
New Zealand: PO Box 2198, Auckland by itsabitblurry
UK: Box 14, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, HP2 7EH by aliceson
Norge: Trollasveien 6, 1410 Kolbotn by hornblower441
Osterreich: Albert Schweitzer-Gasse 4, A-1148 Vienna by I like dirt
Portugal: Apaettado 12, Linda-a Velha by anorakispo
Republic of Ireland: PO Box 4, Pottery Road, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin, Ireland by Monosnaps
Suisse: Case Postale, CH-1001 Lausanne by 1D110
Suomi: Postilokero 19, 01511 Vantaa by Mann-ist-0
Sverige (Sweden): S-175 85, Jarfalla by olle!
USA: 1065 Kapiolani Boulevard, Honolulu, Hawaii 96814 by dallasnagata
USA: 16-31 Rt 208, Fair Lawn, New Jersey 07410 by Michael Raso
Australia: PO BOx 9803, Melbourne, Victoria 3001 by omaikane
I decided that Dwayne's, seeing as it was the only place left in the world processing, should be included in the project, so I contacted them to ask if I could visit & booked some airplane tickets. I had never been to America before.
I flew out on the 27 Dec with my remaining rolls of Kodachrome, Heathrow via Chicago then onto Wichita, where I picked up a hire car & found the nearest hotel. The road to Parsons was long & very straight.
I checked into The Super 8 Motel & then popped into Dwayne's to drop some films off & say hello. There I met Jim who had 1,580 rolls of Kodachrome developed & had come to pick up his slides, the images were all of railroad trains, he had trouble fitting them into his car. Jim & I were interviewed by Mr A.G.Sulzberger from The New York Times and we both got a mention in his piece about Dwayne's that made it to the front page on the 30th Dec.
The photos of my Dwayne's trip were made into a slideshow film and can be found in the Video menu.
the last day
Dwayne let me ‘go behind the scenes’ on the last day to hand film in. The last exposure on my roll of 36 film was of the office clock, the cut-off point to hand film in to be processed. As the film rewound in the camera I was overcome with emotion and had to sit down on the ground outside.
I had the images of Lab Address and Dwayne's Clock printed on Cibachrome, the photo lab printing them closed the week after as Cibachrome became obsolete too.