Kodachrome From 1953 (UPDATE: Or Maybe Not; Probably From 1940-41)

My grandfather, Dr. Leonard C. Mook, in front of his home with his 1940 Mercury Eight sedan.  Kodachrome, 1953.
Although the image is not sharply focused and it probably was made with an inexpensive camera with an inexpensive lens, I think it fairly represents what the photographer (probably my grandmother) was wanted to represent.  I only made minor adjustments to the original slide.  I adjusted the luminance as it was a bit overexposed and the only color correction I made on this image was white balance as it was a shade too warm.  I white balanced on the gray street pavement in the middle where it appeared neutral.  Also, no noise reduction was applied to the image.  I did add some input sharpening.  Not too bad for a 66 year old slide that sat in a slide tray in uncontrolled conditions for all of these years.  By the way, my grandfather was 68 years old in this image, a year older than I now am.! (click to enlarge)

As I am working my way through copying my 35mm slide archives, I came across a box of slides in an "Aeroquipt" slide tray.  These 20 Kodachrome slides were of my grandparents and their home in eastern Pennsylvania.  Most of the slides were marked "1953" in pencil.  Others, by looking at the age of my grandparents, I could tell must have been from the early 1960s.  The slide mounts were also different.  Evidently, Kodak did not stamp or impress the date into the slide mounts at that time.

UPDATE:  I found some additional boxes of slides containing images from the 1930s forward.  That made me question the date of this slide.  I went back and looked and this slide was not marked"1953."  The more I looked at the car and my grandfather, the more I believed the slide was from an earlier time.  The 1940 Mercury looks brand new in this image.  He lived in eastern Pennsylvania where salt was regularly used on the roadways to clear ice and snow.  As we all know, salt quickly causes rust on automobiles.  This car has no rust.  Also, my grandfather looks younger than 68 in this image.  The color of his hair is still brown.  At 68, in our family, hair is no longer brown.  I would now estimate this photo was made in 1940-41 when the car was brand knew.  That would also give us a reason for the photo to be taken—show off the new car.

The color and resiliency of these slides is remarkable.  To me, the color is clearly identifiable as from an early Kodachrome.  It has a certain quality that we generally don't find today's color renditions (film or digital), maybe with the exception of Fujifilm's "Classic Chrome" film simulation.  If early Kodachrome color intrigues you, take a look at some of the work of Saul Leiter or Fred Herzog.  They both worked in Kodachrome in the 1950s and 1960s.  Kodachrome, then, had a totally different color palate.  My favorite color quality.  

The reason for the longevity of Kodachrome, for those who may not know, is that Kodachrome was really a black and white, silver halide based film.  The color was introduced to the emulsion in the various chemical baths during processing.  Most slide films, such as Ektachrome and Fujichrome, are color dye-based films with the color layers embedded in the emulsion itself.  Kodachrome is famous for its longevity whereas the others fade terribly with time due to the dye layers not being as permanent as the silver in Kodachrome.

Also, Kodachrome in 1953 had an ASA (Now called ISO) of 10.  How many of you would be out photographing with the film with that speed?  It was just a bit tougher to be a good photographer in the distant past.  The photographers of those days were remarkably skilled with the limits under which they worked.

For those who may be interesting in reading more about Kodachrome, Wikipedia has an interesting article about it which you can find here.

Join me over at Instagram @dennisamook or my website, www.dennismook.com. 

Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

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