Okay, Tumblr. Here we go.

This shot was taken with Kodachrome 64 (K64) film at some point this past summer, probably around July 2010. I didn’t get around to having it developed until a few weeks ago as there were a few shots left on the roll and I never found the right opportunity to use them.

K64 is a slide film that’s been around in one form or another for over 70 years. But Kodak’s discontinued the product, and there’s only one shop left in the whole world that can still develop the film. They stop on December 31st. (Just Kodachrome requires a special dye developing process; not all slide films are going away.) So I wanted to shoot just one roll just to say I’d had the chance.

The shame about Kodachrome isn’t just that it’s being discontinued, but that there’s nothing similar to replace it. Frankly, I don’t love it as a film. It doesn’t handle scenes with more than a few stops of latitude all that well. But K64 film is really a metaphor for longevity - or lack thereof - in the digital age. Kodak’s cancelled the film with the longest archival stability.

It’s estimated that a K64 transparency will last over 150 years with minimal dye loss, and this picture may live on for over a century in some family archive. But what will become of the shots that we’ve taken on our digital cameras? Even if we print them, dyes on paper don’t make it nearly that long. The best we can hope for is that standard digital formats remain compatible with future technology for as long as possible, and that web upload sites (Flickr, Picasa, etc.) remain in business and preserve all user content when upgrading their platforms.

So far, so good on the compatibility. I have JPEGs shot on a Mavica from 1997 that are fully compatible with any software that reads that format. Let’s hope future photo software designers keep the long-term view.