Kodak’s Picture Not Looking So Perfect

George Pereira

Photography Reporter

The company that created the first camera for the everyday person has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Kodak cites a decreased interest in film and a lack of foothold in the digital camera market as reasons for the decision.

Terry Allan owns a photo studio and says that the loss is a big one for film users.

“They have the best quality film, “she says. “It sucks that we might have one less choice.”

Kodak still holds onto several patents and will be looking to sell them off. The company has to meet the requirements of bankruptcy protection before it can consider a rebirth.

Kodak will be shifting its focus into the digital market. Allan thinks that this is a decision that’s far too late.

“They could have going into the media industry. They were experts in colour.” Allan also points to a lack of hardware in lenses and cameras that weakened Kodak against competition from giants Nikon and Canon.

For Arica Sharma, the company’s darkest hour means more than just the loss of a brand.

“It’s the end of an era,” says Sharma, a Black’s Photography employee of five years. “It’s almost a symbolic death, the end of an entire generation of art.”

Sharma says that the work put into a picture by its photographer simply cannot be simulated with digital cameras.

“Going to school and using film cameras and enlargers to develop my own prints. That’s how we learned to do it.”

While some schools still teach students how to process film, most are going in the direction of digital photography and post-editing in software programs like Photoshop.

“Now it will be like a history lesson for my kids. It makes me sad.”

Kodak closed out the stocks yesterday at $ 0.36 per share, the all-time lowest in the company’s history and down from $93 per share in 1997.

Declaring bankruptcy is an important step in trying to rebuild but Kodak still has a steep hill to climb back to the top of the world of photography.