Of festivals and Kodachrome

[DB_Gallery]

I am sitting on the mall in historic downtown Charlottesville, VA. The first ever Look3 Festival of the

Photograph has just come to an end. This festival has spawned from Nick Nichols annual backyard

slideshows into a much larger event. It was huge, it sold out and will go down in history.

 

http://www.festivalofthephotograph.org/

 

The question to ask was not who was there, but who was not there. Some of the world's very best

photographers were there, including Eugene Richards, Jodi Cobb, David Alan Harvey, William Albert

Allard, Sam Abell, Vince J. Musi, Joel Sartore, Sally Mann, Maggie Stebber, Alex Webb, Rebecca Norris

Webb and a whole ton of others I can't seem to think of at the moment. But of course, there was the

festival's founder: Nick Nichols.There were also lots of editors from Geographic, German Geo, Vanity

Fair, Time, etc.

 

In addition to the people, hundreds of phenomenal photographs were displayed in every way you could

imagine...and not imagine. Nichols has a display of his best work hanging in trees in the pedestrain

mall enlarged to 7x10 feet. Slideshows were projected in half a dozen locals including on the sides of

buildings. At the McGuffey Art Center, Eugene Richards has a showing of his best work called "Thirteen

Books" in which is 35mm derived work is shown no smaller than 30x50.

 

Phenomenal....

 

I came here expecting to meet heros, make friends and premote the most important project I will ever

do. I am leaving with far more than those expectations met. I spent two intense days with David Alan

Harvey working on shaking up my very stock image like style into one that will have more, well, as he

puts it: "Authorship".

He was tough on me, tougher than any of the other 24 students. At first I was a bit bummed, but now I

can't thank him enough....

 

Time to bust some arse!!

 

The Kodachrome project was an idea that I had come about in the Summer of 2004. At first, I thought

how cool it would be to shoot the last rolls of it and do a final farewell show, book, article. But I now

see how much bigger it is. Last night, when I told Sam Abell about it, his eyes lit up like floodlights. He

laughed as he said "Now why in the hell did I not think of that?, We need to do this!" .

 

At this point, it really does not matter who thought of it, it just needs to be done. We need to celebrate

Kodachrome and the idea of what it has brought to us in the last 72 years, period.

 

So I have changed my thinking to "Our America" being us, the people who use it to give grand tribute to

one of the greatest eras of photography ever.

 

So go to the site, read about, then order a few rolls and join us, It won't be around forever.

 

http://www.kodachromeproject.com/

[dangoldman]

Daniel, i have photographs in my airshow portfolio from this year. If you'd like, i'll email you the individual links to the photos; there are about 4 i think that may be worthy. For the final project if you want my work, though i may rather not, i can send you the original slides if that is what you will need. All scans i have are done with a Nikon IV.

 

Good luck with the project, it will be very interesting to see the final result (which, hopefully, there will never be, though).

[boris c umanso]

"We need to celebrate Kodachrome and the idea of what it has brought to us in the last 72

years, period"

 

Actually, we don't "need" to "celebrate Kodachrome" or mourn its coming demise. If it

never existed photographers would have made great images with a different emulsion;

just as they'll make great images after it goes out of production. I like Kodachrome, but

fetishising film emulsions is on par with fetishising cameras, it misses the bigger picture -

images count, not the tools.

[asher]

Boris- I agree with you about the importance of the image over the materials, but if you read

Daniel's website you'll see that he is using the demise of Kodachrome as a metaphor for

losing aspects of our lives that are more stately in pace, more personal and perhaps human

rather than electronically robotic. Quoted directly from his website:<p>

 

<i>The Kodachrome Project is more about celebrating an American era than it is about the

film. "Our America: One last look on Kodachrome" is the message, Kodachrome itself is the

method.</i>

[phyrpowr]

Daniel,

 

I was there too, am just a "semi-advanced amateur tourist-with-good-camera", but was blown away.

 

All hands, prepare now to go to next year's you won't regret it

[robert_m_johnson]

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/robert_m_johnson/495127461/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/230/495127461_51e2c11f5d_o.jpg" width="510" height="344" alt="Young Boys - KK25" /></a>

[bruno]

Robert, you rock.

[robert_m_johnson]

Thanks BT...

[DB_Gallery]

The project is open to anyone who wants to shoot it as the title "Our America" would best

served by having many people all over the country shoot it. Besides, I am hardly qualified of

talented enough to take on a project of this magnitude alone. For those of you who

understand that Kodachrome is more than just a film, join in!

[mark_winter3]

Daniel,

 

Cheers from Quito, Ecuador!

 

Mark