Dwayne's Photo is a film processing facility in Parsons, Kansas founded in 1956. It processes film, slides and certain movie films, and offers photo services. Dwayne's Photo was the last Kodak certified

Kodachrome Kodachrome is the brand name for a color reversal film introduced by Eastman Kodak in 1935. It was one of the first successful color materials and was used for both cinematography and still photography. For many years Kodachrome was widely used ...

processing facility in the world, which stopped accepting rolls of Kodachrome on December 30, 2010, citing Kodak's discontinuation of the necessary developing chemicals.

History

The company was founded in 1956 by Dwayne Steinle as a small film processing facility, but it quickly expanded to become one of the leading photo processors in the United States. When the use of 8 mm film and its successor Super 8 declined rapidly in the 1980s, most facilities closed down. Dwayne's, and some other labs, process a variety of film types, like 126 film, that are no longer manufactured. Between 2000 and 2010, the business was affected by the decline in income because of widespread migration to

digital photography Digital photography uses cameras containing arrays of electronic photodetectors interfaced to an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to produce images focused by a lens, as opposed to an exposure on photographic film. The digitized image ...

, and by 2010 it had reduced its staffing levels from 200 to about 60. By that date, digital sales accounted for half the company's revenue.

Kodachrome

Dwayne's Photo announced that it would continue processing

film, which was no longer manufactured by Kodak, until the end of December 2010. The last roll was processed on January 18, 2011. On July 14, 2010, Dwayne's announced that the final roll of Kodachrome manufactured by Kodak was developed for

Steve McCurry Steve McCurry (born April 23, 1950) is an American photographer, freelancer, and photojournalist. His photo ''Afghan Girl'', of a girl with piercing green eyes, has appeared on the cover of ''National Geographic'' several times. McCurry has photo ...

. The 36 slides will be housed at

George Eastman House The George Eastman Museum, also referred to as ''George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography and Film'', the world's oldest museum dedicated to photography and one of the world's oldest film archives, opened to the public in 1949 in ...

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, and Yonkers, with a population of 211,328 at the 2020 United States census. Located in W ...

. The last roll of Kodachrome film to be developed was exposed by owner Dwayne Steinle with the last exposed frame being a group shot of the Dwayne's Photo employees. Based upon the 2010 ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' article about this event, in 2017

Mark Raso Mark Raso is a Canadian narrative filmmaker and co-owner of the production company Fidelio Films. He is best known for writing and directing the feature-length film ''Copenhagen'' in 2014, directing ''Kodachrome'' starring Ed Harris, Jason Sudeiki ...

directed the film ''

''. The last days of Kodachrome color processing by Dwayne’s Photo are depicted in the book ''Kodachrome – End of the Run: Photographs from the Final Batches'', edited by Bill Barrett and Susan Hacker Stang. The book includes a year of pictures shot by

Webster University Webster University is a private university with its main campus in Webster Groves, Missouri. It has multiple branch locations across the United States and countries across Europe, Asia, and Africa. It offers undergraduate and graduate program ...

photography students on more than 100 rolls of Kodachrome film and processed by Dwayne's on the last day it was processing it, January 18, 2011, before processing chemicals were used up.Kodachrome – End of the Run: Photographs from the Final Batches (St. Louis, Webster University Press, 2011), pages 2-10.

References

External links

*{{Official website, www.dwaynesphoto.com
Dwayne Steinle passes away

Kodachrome (2017) at imdb.com
Manufacturing companies established in 1956 Companies based in Kansas Buildings and structures in Labette County, Kansas 1956 establishments in Kansas Photography companies of the United States