Steve McCurry’s 'Last Roll of Kodachrome' photos are now live on his blog

Every time I have problems with color from a roll of film these days, I can't help but think "If only I had loaded Kodachrome" Probably just selective memory, but what a great film it was, we shall never see it's equal again in this world.

Having shot Kodachrome for 40 years I have to say that these all look push or post-processed, I dont see a 'Kodachrome' look in any of them.

I miss the Kodachrome. Great film.

Umm, the roll of K64 in my Olympus Mju ii has a serial number one higher than his - should I tell him?

I'm happy to send him my roll if he wants to use up the remaining 6 frames, as long as he returns my camera afterwards - it's the limited edition one with the dateback and silver wrist strap so I don't just loan it to anyone.

He'd need to publishes my pictures too - there's a really good one of my Aunt doing the conga, and some arty contre-jour shots of Fudgie and Patch our guinea pigs.

Frames 8-30 he can ignore as I forgot to switch the camera off before I put it in my jacket.

Outstanding. However there are 30 images. This implies 6 or 7 were deleted. I would have also deleted the 2nd shot of De Niro. Such a dud compared to the first, and its existence devalues the first one slightly. I'm surprised it made the cut, especially considering he "proofed" all the shots with a digital camera first.

And the hotel room tv... huh?

Another legend gone.....

I have used a lot of Kodakchrome, Ektar and T-max films with a lot of pleasure. Sad to see a great company like Kodak struggle...

@Alizarine
Sure you can, but if so, much less, if any, is needed. If you have shot Kodachrome or Velvia (or other films, but these are exceptional) you know you can get fantastic shots without any extra help from a computer.

Jeff,
I think the nuances and richness of the colors are outstanding without looking oversaturated. They are strong, yet natural. Look at the series of portraits, the red colors, the white colors, the skintones. And the amazing is that this just by clickling the shutter, no curves, no adjustment layers, no elaborate PP to fix the shortcomings of the digital image.

PerL,

But the issues is how much did using Kodachrome 64 impact the final result compared to if the same photographer had used a modern high-end digital under the same conditions for the same shot. Are they any better because they were taken with Kodachrome 64 than they would have been taken with digital? If the answer is "no" because of the "noise" (grain) and lack of contrast/saturation control, the this is just an exercise in nostalgia.
You appear to be implying that these shots ARE technically better. If so, in what way?

It is obvious all technical qualities of a photo cant be grasped by the fixation with the simple terms noise and resolution that reigns today.

Amazing how our expectations have changed. To me, these are grainy and over saturated compared to modern digital images!

I wonder how many people look at that and wonder "what on earth was film?"!

The the portraits from India of the holy men, the women and the kids are fantastic.

I used to love Kodachrome 64 but I did switched to mainly Fujifilm Velvia 100 before the end of film arrived. This was mainly for the (almost) extra stop and being able to get it processed cheaper, quicker and not mounted. In the UK you could only really get Kodachrome processed by post by Kodak.

I'm sure the Kodachrome slides will outlast any of the E6 slides I have. Looking through my old film stuff it is amazing how little is worth scanning - but then I'm not Steve McCurry!

BTW: Think of the financial cost of nipping off to India with a few hundred rolls of Kodachrome. The business model of photography has changed sooo much.

PKR-36...

I showed this to a friend who was a staff photographer at Newsweek for a few decades. He started chuckling and showed me the NYC Taxicab photo.

He explained that all the Kodachrome had a serial number starting with "PKR-36".

How cool is it that he found that cab with that license plate?

The agony this photographer must have felt every time he squeezed off a shot from his VERY LAST roll careful to not waste a single frame. Now he knows to some degree the agony of the unwashed masses who had to buy their own film and shot so few keepers. Thank God for digital. That being said, these images while a tad "grainy" are beautiful.

Only a litle over 8 minutes into this video and really enjoying it. Sad indeed, but paradigms do shift but fortunately memories will hold on. Thanks for sharing your experience with this wonderful yet now sad end of an era Steve. :)

I have to say, I'm moved to tears at the end. It's hard to let go of beautiful things, people, or an era. Great way to see it off Steve, excellent work.

Just imagine if more shooters started shooting as if they only had 36 shots left. They'd learn so much.

(manually added) EXIF data would have been interesting. Especially ISO-value. Grain seems to be quite high in all shots. Dark areas miss detail. Sharpness could be better in modern standards.

The "feel" of the images is sure quite strong. Film camera increases "sadness" of the the subject.

Seeing these images, I miss old film ages less and less.

One photographic climax. Kudos !

I very much enjoyed shooting this film. And my father shot dozens of rolls of it from the late 1950s to the early 1980s. Fortunately they all survived and look as brilliant as they did when they arrived in the mail after being processed in Palo Alto.

This is great. And great film Kodachrome was.

...in fact, I find it also a very moving project.

A photographer paying tribute to his "tool" of choice for such great moments in his career by shooting "the last roll" of Kodachrome could not be a more perfect final chapter for such a iconic image registering medium, one that even has the previous "honor" of having a song been written about it.

I love digital, but cannot but lament the dismissal of such a powerful photographic tool...I guess the tide of times just makes everything, sooner or later, obsolete, irrespective of its intrinsic and objective value.

It is also ironically sad while, at the same time, extremely reveling that he found fit to bring along his digital DSLR to test possible shots before actually expending the valuable Kodachrome frames.

Given that usually we take dozens, if not hundreds sometimes, of pictures, to get a few very good ones... I feel that having 36 out of 36 being a success, this was quite an achievement, that few of us could aspire to.

In this light, although I would have liked to see a wider range, subject wise, and geographically, on the last roll, I feel it was a nice closing. After all, the world is all about how it is seen, through various eyes. And those eyes, belong to the people.

Ok, now where did I put my slide projector... Hope the lamp still works!

Very nice! Thanks for the nostalgic return.

i don't miss it.

Great Goodbye on the last roll, excellent shots all. I switched from Kodachrome to Fujichrome around 1984, but still can remember the Kodachrome's over-accented warm part of the spectrum. It was a pleasure to look at.

Cue film bashers in 3...2...1...