The Last Place on Earth to Process Kodachrome Film Stops Production

Shirts worn by the employees at Dwayne’s Photo, processors of the last Kodachrome film rolls.

Photographers around the world are saying goodbye to an icon. Kodachrome, the color film that was a favorite among professional shutterbugs during the ’50s and ’60s and was the medium used to capture some of most celebrated portraits in photography, has gone the way of the dodo.

Dwayne’s Photo, a photo processing business in Kansas and the last place on planet Earth still developing Kodachrome, has officially stopped processing the famous film. December 30 was the last day to hand it over. The shop, which says it received a “tsunami of film” from all over the world during the final days, has been developing 24 hours a day and expects to finish up sometime this week

Manufactured by Eastman Kodak for nearly 75 years, Kodachrome film was the first commercially successful color film and was celebrated for its long-lasting storage ability. However, the film was notoriously difficult to process. Combined with steadily decreasing sales over the years, this resulted in Kodak’s discontinuation of the film in 2009.

Perhaps the most notable images captured with Kodachrome include the infamous 1963 Zapruder film of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, portraits of Sir Edmund Hillary on his legendary ascent of Mt. Everest, and National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry’s unforgettable shot of a beautiful Afghan refugee girl.

McCurry, whose iconic photograph was named the most recognized image in the history of National Geographic, was given the final roll of Kodachrome film in 2009. You can read more about the journey of Kodachrome’s final roll here.