When Paul Simon wrote the song “Kodachrome,” the two premiere color film stocks in the world were both produced by Kodak. Kodachrome was the standard color-reversal slide film for those looking for really saturated colors, and Ektachrome, also a transparency film, yielded more pastel images. Both films were the universal choice of professional and amateur photographers. And at the same time, the New York manufacturer, founded in 1892, also had the two most popular monochrome stocks—Plux-X and the faster Tri-X.

Today, the cameras carried by National Geographic staff are as likely as not to have no spooled film, but rather flash cards that are blind to the same light “that [gave] us the nice bright colors; the green of summers, and [made us] think all the world’s a sunny day.”

More than anything else, it was digital media that ended the long unwinding of the Kodak classics in developing tanks here and around the world. Today, there is only one lab in the world still processing Kodachrome. It’s Dwayne’s Photo in Parsons, Kan. The company has promised it will continue to offer processing through 2010.

In last week’s press release, Koday explained that Kodachrome “became the world’s first commercially successful color film in 1935,” but it suffered a rapid decline in recent years because of the switch to digital. Today, the company says Kodachrome film represents just a fraction of 1% of total still-film sales. About 70% of the company’s revenues, on the other hand, are from its commercial and consumer digital businesses. The company still produces professional film stock, including seven new still films and two new motion picture films.

The title of the press release was, “Kodak retires KODACHROME Film; Celebrates Life of Oldest Film Icon in its Portfolio.” The celebration will include Kodak donating the last rolls of the film to the George Eastman House--International Museum of Photography and Film in Rochester. Professional photographer Steve McCurry will shoot one of those last rolls of film, and the photos will be donated to Eastman House.

Although you might not recognize McCurry by name, you are likely familiar with his work for magazines such as National Geographic. In fact, one of the legendary photos recorded on Kodachrome was his cover photo originally titled “Afghan Girl.”