Kodak Discontinuing B&W Paper?

[Tom Diekwisch]

For me there's probably some nostalgia to it. I have never bought much Kodak on my own, mostly Ilford and Fuji, but for the decade I worked for a newspaper, Kodak was it. TriX and Polymax. I believe mostly for cost reasons, as far as I remember. Nevertheless, there was a certain look to it. Rough and bleached out highlights, at least the way we worked the material. And grain. You could kind of smell the photochemical process in your mind, when the paper was in press the next morning. Has nothing to do with large format. Sorry to see Kodak go, even it's just a memory of the past.

[Emmanuel BIGLER]

From Christopher Perez :

Are there any B&W papers worth looking at from the old Soviet block nations?

Christopher. Let me translate your question into a more politicaly correct sentence ;-)
You probably mention Central European Photographic film, paper & equipment manufacturers now within the 25 countries in the EU.
The answer is : long before the horrors of WWII and the Cold War, Central Europe did produce many quality goods including film & paper like almost any European coutry. Including Western Russia which geographically belongs to Europe ;-);-)
From this heritage we are proud to get Foma (the Czech Republic) and Forte (Hungary) products without any irrelevant reference to their Big Eastern Neighbour ;-);-)
And yes, we are dissapointed to see Big Yellow getting out of the B&W paper business and this does not mean 'milk and honey in the fountains' for its competitors. I remember sadly the demise of the mechanical watch industry here in the mid seventies, when one of the big local watch companies collapsed, the smaller rejoiced for a while... before collapsing... and eventually re-starting on new grounds and new markets.

[C.S.]

In addition to artists, educational institutions will be affected. As always the bottom line has been the progenitor of evolution in any field. Moving from vinyl to cd,cd to dvd and dvd to mini dvd; and on it goes. However, I don't recall any technology in the visual arts being obviated because of the bottom line. Imagine oil or acrylic paint being removed because of the bottom line. Somewhere Kodak thought paper was too costly to manufacture and while no one actually believes that this move will offset the R+D mistakes Kodak made over the last ten years, why let artists and educational institutions suffer the indignity that Kodak's suffered. After all, Polaroid was able to restructure without that kind of loss. Kodak's progeny has been prolific. What happens when they also stop? Black and White photography is taught in 80%-85% of all schools in the United States today. I am one of those educators who has taught for over twenty five years. I teach both analog B+W as well as digital SLR along with Photoshop CS2, color management and profiling for printers. I teach B+W because I love the medium. I also teach digital because I love it as well. However if you wish to hear about a bottom line, then let me tell you. Photography is taught with an SLR so that students may understand the concept of exposure. Take away the traditional darkroom and the students must invest in a digital SLR. The cost of an entry level digital SLR begins at $800.00 dollars vs. $190.00 for a film camera. There is of course no point in teaching students on a point and shoot, digital or otherwise. Although the high cost for a private educational institutions purchase of digital SLRs will be amortized over several years, (forget any purchases from the public school sector), this will take a lot of convincing since parents cannot and should not afford such a luxury for their kids. It will take well over a decade before we see the price point of a digital SLR be that of todays entry level film camera. Schools all over the country, including mine will have to consider dropping photography all together. It's interesting that B+W paper will cease production however B+W film will not. Hope springs eternal?

[ruth breil]

i am glad the spirit is still alive and well and the photokarma on the high and high,
but hey, just tried to remember what i did with penalure paper when i wanted to try
and print from color negatives last century...and had to laugh when i got to the part about
kodak, like giving up on us all...so the dude in brazil that mentioned ilford paper because
thats all h e could get outsmarts us all, me thinks...and hey, scanning the negs and then
printing on WHATEVER will yield a fine foto, so dont any of you despair, you might just
discover you were lucky yu couldnt come up with the familiar stuff...but are doing better
with new methods...thats what creativity is all about, no??? ok, i know i know, its the pits
going to a photostore, asking for a certain kind of paper and you have some 3 year old that
thinks he is wise beyond our years telling you glossy is the same as mat, and when you say
no: i NEED portriga rapid, thinks you are in the wrong store and should be going boating
or something...keep digging, you will get there, though i want to thank you all for reminding
be about how to get the best results from printing b/w from color negs...i am looking at my
widelux color neg, trying to think what to do next, and probably scanning will do it...byyouall,R

[John Kasaian]

RC AZO???? Mike, surely you jest!

[Oren Grad]

John, there was an RC Azo paper sold in Mexico until recently. For a while last year there were boxes of it turning up on eBay. Maybe more recently too, I just haven't been watching the darkroom section lately. There were threads on APUG that mentioned this.