Eastman Kodak

Why could a small start-up build Instagram, a photo app, and sell it for $1 billion while companies like Eastman Kodak, steeped in photography and the emotionalism of photography, could not? Culture got in the way.

It was, they said, "the largest prize contest in photographic history." The Rush Rhees Library in Rochester, N.Y., houses a collection of photographs from the first-ever picture contest sponsored by the Eastman Kodak Company.

While the Eastman Kodak Company's early picture contests were national - and later international - there was no shortage of submissions from New York City photographers. A selection of photos from 1929 to the early 1940s.

Like so many consumers who have seen the continual demise of Eastman Kodak and it’s many film, and film-related products, I view today’s filing for Chapter 11 protection with incredible sadness.

"I'm not sure I miss the process, but I do miss the routine, of long quiet nights with me, my thoughts and my negatives." David Gonzalez reflects on the Temple of Kodak.

There's a very good article in The Economist about why Kodak is failing, while Fujifilm is doing well.

H_Fisher writes "Michael Hiltzik of the L.A. Times writes with a frank look at the decisions and changes that have led to Kodak's decline from top U.S. photography company to a company whose product is almost irrelevant. He writes: '[Kodak] executives couldn't foresee a future in which film had no role in image capture at all, nor come to grips with the lower profit margins or faster competitive pace of high-tech industries.' He also notes that Kodak's story comes as a cautionary tale to giants like Google and Facebook."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

These were supposed to be the younger, hipper Academy Awards, the ones that shook up the ceremony’s conventions with popular, great-looking emcees in actors James Franco and Anne Hathaway, who were unlike the middle-aged comedians and TV talk-show hosts of years past.
But the results couldn’t have been more traditional, with “The King’s Speech” – a [...]