old kodachromes

When I photographed Jim Bloom cutting tobacco during the summer of 1988 I had no idea that the image would become the foundation for my "Last Farmers" project.  It was an early September evening, more August than fall, when I spotted Jim working his way down the rows of tobacco on his father's farm.  A roll of Kodachrome 200 and a 35mm Nikkor lens captured the scene. The beauty of Kodachrome was not only its longevity (100 years +, if archived properly), but it's colors.  When aged (I have some that are 60 years), the old slides begin to mellow to softer tones.  With the "Last Farmers" I digitally processed the photos as if they were 100 year old sepia-toned tintypes.  The look seemed to fit the project. Recently, however, I have been re-working many of the images, hoping to recreate the look of Kodachrome - a film and process that too, has slipped into the past.  The first photo, Jim & the original Kodachrome; the second, Loren Huddleston & Adobe Lightroom.