Mama, Don’t Take My Kodachrome Away

“It had a great color palette.  Kodachrome had more poetry in it, a softness, an elegance.  With Kodachrome you take it out of the box and the picture is already brilliant.”

– Steve McCurry as told to Vanity Fair Magazine

I remember using Kodachrome film years ago. My pictures were alive with a depth of color. There was something special about using Kodachrome, but it is now gone.  The digital age is here to stay. Kodachrome film is no more.

The vibrant color of my workplace is also fading.  While I prefer to write of the positive and possible, I must also write of those dark days as a leader.  My business organization is changing.  Indeed, there is the positive and possible as a new company is forming.

There is also the piece-by-piece deconstruction of our past.

I live in the ruins of that deconstruction.  Today more terrific people (employees) are leaving due to yet another reduction-in-force.   Excuse my deep use of metaphor today. Memories of Kodachrome film and its terrific color palette seem appropriate and remind me of days of same at work.

For a time I had almost too much depth of color here in the office.  Yea, I had my favorites. Yet all the colors came together and the results were terrific. We were proud of what we created.

Tomorrow is a new day.  The depth and variety of color will return.  Yet I will never forget my days of Kodachrome.  I will let Paul Simon take it from here …

Kodachrome

You give us those nice bright colors
You give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world’s a sunny day, oh yeah!

Mama, don’t take my Kodachrome
Mama, don’t take my Kodachrome
Mama, don’t take my Kodachrome (away)