Neil Montana’s and Kodak Coloramas

[diversey]

https://petapixel.com/neil-montanus/

[Drew Wiley]

My gosh, if it cost $30,000 dollars apiece to print just one of those huge backlit Etacolor transparencies, I can hardly imagine what the huge dye transfer prints outsourced to other labs, and in general proximity to the Colorama displays themselves, must have cost. I one once talked in person to the former owner of the big specialized lab which did some of those, but it didn't even occur to me to query about the cost. And they didn't use Kodak materials. Had their own dyes, and any one of several manufacturers of matrix imbition film could have been used. Ordinary DK50 developer was used instead of the fancy fast Kodak variety, which would be impossible to control on such large scale. In other words, it more resembled previous wash-off relief technique than the subsequent Eastman Dye Transfer method itself. But the end result is substantially the same. I don't imagine the Ektacolors would have much useful display life before showing signs of fading, especially given how much UV came off those early fluorescent backlighting tubes.

[Tin Can]

There is a video about how KODAK made them

[Sal Santamaura]

My gosh, if it cost $30,000 dollars apiece to print just one of those huge backlit Etacolor transparencies, I can hardly imagine what the huge dye transfer prints outsourced to other labs, and in general proximity to the Colorama displays themselves, must have cost. I one once talked in person to the former owner of the big specialized lab which did some of those, but it didn't even occur to me to query about the cost. And they didn't use Kodak materials. Had their own dyes, and any one of several manufacturers of matrix imbition film could have been used. Ordinary DK50 developer was used instead of the fancy fast Kodak variety, which would be impossible to control on such large scale. In other words, it more resembled previous wash-off relief technique than the subsequent Eastman Dye Transfer method itself. But the end result is substantially the same. I don't imagine the Ektacolors would have much useful display life before showing signs of fading, especially given how much UV came off those early fluorescent backlighting tubes.

Still going on about dye transfers instead of Coloramas, eh Drew? Well, at least in the last three years you've given up on the idea that "Colorama" refers to anything other than the 18-foot high backlit transparencies displayed over Grand Central Terminal. I guess Petapixel carries more weight with you than Popular Photography did:


https://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?154151-How-was-a-Kodak-Colorama-made/page4

[Mark Sampson]

Um, the photographer's name is Neil Montanus.
Moderators, can you edit this thread's title, please?

[diversey]

Haha, self-correcting corrected his last name incorrectly, :o. Thanks for pointing it out!

[Alan Klein]

Growing up in NYC and using the subways was always neat walking through Grand Central Station and seeing these Coloramas. Kodak pictures, signs, and advertisements were all over the place back then. How things change.

[Drew Wiley]

Yeah, Montana and NYC are quite a ways apart, unless they've tremendously extended their subway route!