Kodachrome: The American Invention of Our World, 1939-1959 [Bargain Price] [Paperback]

Els Rijper (Author), Delano Greenidge Editions (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2002

A popular history of 20th-century visual culture, Kodachrome: The American Invention of Our World 1939-1959 shows how the American point of view in full-color became an international standard.

The book opens with a selection of rarely reproduced color images from the Depression through the early days of World War II. The bright, cosmopolitan atmosphere of the 1939 World’s Fair in New York contrasts with a foreboding glimpse of Hitler’s pre-war Berlin. Early photographs of the devastation in Warsaw and London are presented together with pictures of sharecroppers and homesteaders in the United States.

Fashion plates and candid portraits of Satchmo, Frida Kahlo and Helena Rubenstein share the pages that follow with coverage of the War through the liberation of Buchenwald, the conference at Yalta, and the wreckage of Berlin and Hiroshima.

The book continues through the late 40s and into the 50s with a wide-ranging assortment of images from the worlds of fashion, politics, sports, and popular culture. Among the personalities, places, and events pictured are Marilyn Monroe, Joe Di Maggio, Gene Autry, Elvis, Pablo Picasso, Eero Saarinen’s studio, shop windows in Manhattan, the Korean War, and the A-bomb tests at the Marshall Islands and Bikini Atoll.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From The New Yorker

Although commercial color film was first produced in 1907, it was not widely used until the mid-nineteen-fifties, so when we think of people and events from the first half of the twentieth century we tend to imagine them in black-and-white. In fact, from the mid-thirties Kodak's Kodachrome process offered a remarkably colorfast and permanent image. The stunning pictures in this book show subjects familiar from black-and-white photography—Georgia sharecroppers, New York City traffic beneath the Third Avenue El, Hugo Jaeger's Nazi Berlin—but invigorated by a vivid palette that makes them feel startlingly contemporary. Unfortunately, Kodak, worried about losing business for its other, less stable color stocks, never made Kodachrome's superior durability a public selling point, and so the corpus of surviving color images is smaller than it might have been.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Review

"...the jaw-dropping magnificence of Els Rijper's 'Kodachrome' has forced a re-evaluation of Simon's catchy number." -- The Atlanta Constitution Journal, December 1, 2002

"Kodachrome, you give us those nice bright colors, you give us the greens of summers. Oh yeah!" -- Paul Simon, “Kodachrome” (song) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 230 pages
• Publisher: Delano Greenidge Editions (November 1, 2002)
• ISBN-10: 0929445139
• ASIN: B0007NLUYA
• Product Dimensions: 11.9 x 9.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,214,138 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This was reel life, October 23, 2004

By 

Robin Benson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kodachrome: The American Invention of Our World, 1939-1959 (Paperback)

An intriguing look at the recent past that most of us have only seen in black and white. Intriguing in that most of the exterior shots, especially the news photos still sort of look black and white, the overall colors that come across are grey and beige. This only makes the remaining photos, mostly interior studio work, seem dazzling. The cost of producing, in print media, regular color images was too expensive so color was basically left to advertising until the mid-fifties. It wasn't until the late seventies that color art photography was finally accepted.

The book certainly has some fascinating photos, not so much the political figures and celebrities of the time but images of everyday life. It is here that I thought the book was rather disappointing, of the 207 photos about a quarter are studio portraits of celebrities, just the sort of photos that were printed in color on magazine covers to be found on any newsstand. I would have preferred to have far fewer of these portraits.

If you are interested in color photos from the past have a look at Bound for Glory: America in Color 1939-43 with 175 images of daily life in America (and fortunately no celebrities). A book that covers Britain in color, from 1945 to 1952, is The S&J;Silver Lining Cross R by Robin Cross. Like 'Kodachrome' these two books offer a new look at the past.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Full color history in a time of black and white, February 24, 2004

By 

A History Buff (Attleboro, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kodachrome: The American Invention of Our World, 1939-1959 (Paperback)

I have to say that this book is AMAZING! My wife wanted it and telling me the title all I thought about was that Paul Simon song.

Upon getting the book, I could understand why she wanted it so badly. It is amazing to see images of Hitler and WWII from my history book except in full blown color.

This is a great book for anyone out there who is interested in history, photography, or if you are interested in seeing history in a whole new light.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why did they take it away?, March 20, 2006

By 

A. J. Montgomery "Montyaj" (London, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kodachrome: The American Invention of Our World, 1939-1959 (Paperback)

This is a glorious volume that reproduces, beautifully, some of the most stunning images of the mid-twentieth century, captured on what is probably the finest colour medium ever produced. Look on these works, ye digital photographers, and despair!

Kodachrome, along with Technicolor, passed into the language as a byword for quality; sadly, it's now passed into history. I am grateful to the publishers of this book for producing a worthy epitaph.

Great book Great bargain.