George Eastman filed a patent for the first ever celluloid roll film on 6th April, 1889 – an incremental development following the release of the first Kodak handheld camera, released in 1888, but a truly significant one.

Eastman’s original products came preloaded with film, and were marketed as “convenient as a field-glass”. For $10, customers could take 100 shots which were then developed by Kodak at their factory in Rochester, New York.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly discover why Eastman’s advertising nous

was years ahead of its time; explain how Kodak soon became the world’s leading supplier of film stock; and reveal that his company wasn’t as tardy about the coming digital photographic revolution as you might imagine…

Content Warning: Suicide

Further Reading:

• ‘George Eastman and the Kodak Camera’ (ThoughtCo, 2019): https://www.thoughtco.com/george-eastman-history-of-kodak-1991619

• ‘Kodak inventor George Eastman’s perfectly planned death’ (news.com.au, 2019): https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/true-stories/the-perfectly-planned-death-of-kodak-inventor-george-eastman/news-story/8af9b9f21050cc95d4a306b21d198c08

• ‘American Experience: The Wizard of Photography’ (PBS, 2000):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_v0cUEBZSC4

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The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

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