The Giant's Fall

No, this is not about football and the New York Giants.

This is about the fall of the great Eastman Kodak Company.  The company, founded in 1880, that was for so long the king of film photography; the company that introduced the Kodak Brownie camera in 1900; the company that developed the first digital camera and could have marketed it in 1993, but did not; and the company that lost its way when the paradigm changed from film to digital photography, today filed for bankruptcy.

I could philosophize about changing paradigms, and how companies deeply entrenched in the old paradigm, usually are not the leaders in the new paradigm.  But I will not.

Kodak drew me into photography.  The Kodak Brownie was my first camera (not in 1900, but in the late 1940's.)  The Brownie introduced me to amateur photography.  I can remember using my Brownie, shooting through the window, early in my photography life, taking a photo of snow piled high on tree branches.  That was in January, 1949.  I remember the picture, and the month and year, because the camera was a gift, and with it I took every possible picture!  If I dig deeply enough in old boxes I may even find the picture.

In college, with a more sophisticated Kodak camera, I met the late Joel Levinson.  Our shared interest in photography may have been the initial bond as Joel and I became close friends for life.  (Joel became an truly fine photographer, leaving me far behind.  He had an artistic eye, great camera skill, and a deft processing technique.)

Since then I have owned many other cameras, processed my own black and white film, and produced a few good pictures.  Kodak drew me in. 

My thanks to them.  I am saddened to see them bankrupt.