Cleveland Flats, 1995. Shot on Kodachrome on my Nikon FE.
This frame is from a roll of Kodachrome shot in 1995, down in Cleveland’s Flats. I presented myself the challenge to shoot just one frame of each subject—that was one chance for the perfect composition and exposure. And with Kodachrome, exposure was everything.
Kodachrome had a way of slowing down photographers. The film delivered super rich colors and incredible sharpness, but it had tight latitude, compressing the shadow to highlight range. So we had to understand Kodachrome’s limitations to enjoy its advantages. Exposure was critical, and we had to carefully analyze what our meters were telling us. (Or, just bracket the hell out of it.)
Plus, there was always the waiting. Waiting for the slides to come back from Kodak. We would wait a week before seeing the results. Because of that, we were especially careful when shooting.
This frame is super-saturated (I exposed for the shiny metal), and is a sweet example of how Kodachrome could render what we see. This building (I think it was a charcoal factory) is now gone.
