From the Archive

My father worked for Kodak in various departments for over 33 years. That was his arena, thus I painted and drew and eventually grew up to be an art/photohistorian, but it was inevitable that I got into the business in some way. He often shares some amazing stories from his days at the yellow giant and all the people he worked with and met, and if it's ok with him I will share some from time to time here. In addition, I fear that these oral stories from the golden days of the photo industry giants are being lost, and especially those from the people who were behind the scenes and in the technical trenches. (I heard similar stories from Polaroid employees, in particular the self-proclaimed "the goo people," when doing a Polaroid exhibition.) Growing up in Kodak town was and still is a huge part of my life. While in Oxford one summer in college, for example, we met a British professor who asked us if we really could throw our film into the Genesee river to develop it.

Here is a fun picture of my Dad in his darkroom, circa 1968. I remember him saying this was a special enlarger head, one that hadn't been released. I will check again with him on the identity various accouterments and post the details later. Long live the darkroom (or at least film!).

Addendum: 1/6 I just found this old IM exchange that I saved

Leslie: what kind of enlarger is that??

Leslie: i am doing a powerpoint presentation, thus my flurry of images

Gordon: That was an experimental Kodak enlarger with an attached color computer that would set the right color filtration automatically.

Leslie: in 1968???

Gordon: It was based upon the old Kodak Precision B enlarger, but was highly modified. It never went into production but I got it working