Its a sad day for photographers and the demise of Kodak symbolises the final nail in the coffin for film. Many of us will have grown up using kodak film and its a shame to see a company that was once a huge player now filing for bankruptcy. While Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection is not technically the end and many companies have come back to live another day (General Motors was a high profile company that filed Chapter 11) Kodak is different – they basically own a product that nobody really needs! I expect the makers of wax cylinders felt the same when vinyl records came out. Technology moves on and not always for the better but in this case digital images have so many advantages that film products are dead in the water. Even Kodak only believe there is a future for their digital printing business and that looks unlikely.
What a fall from the dizzy heights of the mid 90s when their share price was $93 and is now worth just around 40 cents. The company is said to owe 6.75 billion with only around 5.1 billion in assets. Kodak is a classic case of not seeing the writing on the wall and switching to digital earlier.
Will I miss them? no not really. In reality I have not taken a film image for the past 7 years but I have so many of my images on film that it is sad to see such a huge company and a household name fail so spectacularly.
My business has up to this point thrive because of the digital revolution and I hope it continues to do so. There was something about film that made it special to use but time marches on and the digital revolution is here to stay.
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