PERSONAL DOCUMENTARY & KODAK KODACHROME
Recently I was out with my friend Charles Evans shooting his lovely Citröen DS and in a welcome distraction from the sheer beauty of focusing on the car, he asked me if I was able to scan Kodak Kodachrome? Well as it happens I am. Scanning Kodachrome is not straightforward and my scanning software has built-in profiles made specifically for Kodaks most famous colour film stock.
A couple of days later Charles dropped off some boxes of slides taken by his father for me to scan. Spreading them out over my lightbox I could see many potential gems, but it was the distinct colours of Kodachrome that initially got me excited. Kodak introduced Kodachrome in the mid-30s and until its demise 70 years later, it was considered to be one of the most beautiful film stocks ever. Kodachrome was used in still and motion picture photography and with its signature colours was the colour film of choice of professional photographers in an era when black & white dominated. Kodachrome was a complex film and required its own processing chemistry, in fact, it was sold process-paid, once shot it was sent back to Kodak’s network of labs for developing.
Charles seems to remember that his father used a Contaflex camera. I use a CONTAX camera for 35mm too so I was really happy to be starting this small project. As I began to scan and process the slides, I could see through the photos the passion of the man who took them, they were a record of his days out at the Grand Prix, car shows and photos of his wife and friends, the sort of personal documentary that many of us record every day. Except over time these photos have slowly become more than just personal, they have become history.
Amongst all the slides one caught my eye. This beautiful photo of four Maserati 250F’s lined up at the beginning of the 1957 British Grand Prix at Aintree. I love everything about it, the unmistakable colours of Kodachrome that almost transport any viewer directly back to the late 1950s. The Italian racing red of the Maserati cars is mesmerising set against the muted greys and browns of the track. Yet there are beautiful pinches of colour all over the frame. The skin tones of the participants, the light blue overalls of the mechanics and the small but distinctive yellow Autocar advertising sign in the background all contributed to the feast. Finally the cooling tower and smoke stacks oppressed by the cold grey north western sky, a solid reminder that this is not Monaco or Monza. What a priceless piece of history. Thanks Mr Evans.
Photo Credit: Kodachrome sides on blog list page by Jo Gala