We bow our heads in reverence to Kodachrome film’s 74 years as a photography icon. Only one remaining lab in the world still processes Kodachrome, and they will run their last prints this December. April Rocha, a devotee of Kodachrome and other endangered and nearly-extinct forms of photography, sent this shot to us and delivered the sad news. Maybe you remember photographer Steve McCurry, whose portrait of Sharbat Gula, or the “Afghan Girl,” graced the cover of a 1984 National Geographic. Steve requested that Kodak allow him to shoot the last roll of 36 frames it would manufacture, and vowed to document the entire life of the roll. “It’s definitely the end of an era,” he said. “It has such a wonderful color palette … a poetic look, not particularly garish or cartoonish, but wonderful, true colors.”

If you have any Kodachrome shots you’d like to share with us, send them our way and we’ll post them on the blog. If you haven’t processed them yet, better send them to Dwayne’s posthaste.

Kodachrome, we’re not worthy. Here’s to a more patient, flawed, passionate and saturated age.

Photo of Ace Hotel Palm Springs by our friend April Rocha