Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

As I mentioned in my blog last week, Kodak has announced it is the end of the line for Kodachrome, one of its best known brands.

A few of you have since e-mailed me pictures taken on Kodachrome so I thought it would be good to share a few such as the one above by Daniel Furon.

Before I do that though, Richard Hannah, asked to see the picture of Martina Navratilova I mentioned in my article as I promised to retrieve it from our archive. Well, all I can say is that I looked and it's not there. Perhaps it was kept aside by the photographer, or maybe it has been lost in the intervening years, either way, it's a shame.

Anyway, here are a few of your Kodachrome moments.

Colin Smith sent this photo (above) he shot in 1979, using his first SLR, a Praktica L with a Zeiss 50mm f/1.8 lens. He adds:

"I had no light meter, so I must have guessed right with the indoors exposure on this occasion."

Daniel Jameson said about his picture of cactus:

"This was taken last summer in the Gothenburg Botanic Gardens. I don't use Kodachome very often, but I've just ordered a final roll for a One Last Roll project. Sad to see a 74-year-old process go which, although stupidly complex by today's standards, clearly works brilliantly."

Doug Steley said:

"I took this picture of a sand dune near Windorah, Queensland, Australia, on 64 ASA Kodachrome, nothing did RED like Kodachrome.

"I am heading back out there this year with a Nikon D700 and the same lens this was taken with. I will be interested to see what the difference is 15 years later on.

"I know the benefits and the freedom digital gives photographers but I do miss the old days when every shot counted and every time you pressed the shutter button you heard the dollar coin drop!

"I learned photography using 5"X4" sheet film many times we were allowed two sheets of film to photograph a subject and get it right."

Many thanks for sharing those magic moments.

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Many thanks again to all of you who submitted pictures this week.

This time, we asked you to send photos on the theme of white and .

Let us know what you think by using the comment box below.

Congratulations to those whose pictures have been chosen - and if your picture didn't make it, why not send us something for next week?

Let's carry on the non-colour theme this week, so now we'd like to see your pictures on the theme of... black.

Interpret this in any way you see fit and send your pictures to us at yourpics@bbc.co.uk or .

Please include the word "Black" in subject line of your message.

The deadline is midnight BST Tuesday 30 June, and remember to add your name and a caption: who, what, where and when should be enough, though the more details you give, the better your chance of being selected.

We will publish a selection of your photos this time next week.

Files should be sent as JPEGs. They shouldn't be larger than 10Mb and ideally much smaller: around 1Mb is fine, or you can resize your pictures to 1000 pixels across.

Please see our terms and conditions, but remember that the copyright remains with you. The pictures will only be used by the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ for the purposes of this project. Finally, when taking photos, please do not endanger yourself or others, take unnecessary risks or infringe any laws.

Any questions or suggestions for future themes, please use the comment form and I'll get back to you.

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Photographs can provoke strong reactions. The belief that they can change the world is probably a little misplaced, though they can certainly influence opinion, and that can lead to support for aid agencies helping those caught in events beyond their control.

A new book and forthcoming exhibition by the draws from its archives images taken on the frontline of conflicts since 1860, and includes many powerful images.

The ICRC archives date back to the 1860s and cover most of the major conflicts from the last century. Despite its title, this is not a collection of war photographs; there are few soldiers on show.

Flicking through the collection, I'm struck by the pictures taken at quieter moments, away from the conflict lines. A few frames that caught my attention include one by Andre Jolliet (right) showing three children wearing helmets left behind after the Indo-Pakistan conflict of 1971.

It's a lovely picture, great light, composition and colour, but the context changes the reading of the picture and I want to know more of these boys' lives. Photography's not very good at that: it provides a stage for questions, but without supporting text, it rarely has any answers.

The book includes many pictures of ICRC operatives, including a couple helping to evacuate a wounded man from El Salvador in 1987, another of a delegate counting staff wages on his bedroom floor in Uganda in1990 and yet another of a man using the phone of an ICRC worker to call relatives to let them know he is okay.

But the picture of ICRC staff that is a worthy document (shown at the top of this article) is a simple picture by Boris Heger of combatants in Colombia in 1999 being instructed in international humanitarian law.

Seven fighters with scarves around their faces and AK-47s on their laps listen attentively. It's a real insight into the work of the ICRC, and not something that is widely seen. We are used to the pictures of aid agencies helping the wounded in field hospitals or refugee camps, but this is different. Even in war, there are rules.

Overall, the book leaves you with a feeling that not much has changed; through the years: the names and places alter, but the central struggle to survive amid conflict remains - but then I guess that's fairly obvious.

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Humanity in War: Frontline photography since 1860 will be at the in London from 7 July 2009.

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The original little yellow box is no more. has finally , one of the first colour films to be available to the masses.

Kodachrome has had a special place in the hearts of many photographers for nearly three-quarters of a century, but was at its peak of popularity during the 1950s and 60s, though today it accounts for less than 1% of Kodak's sales of film.

The writing has been on the wall for sometime as Kodachrome was the odd one out in a bag of colour transparency film. Kodachrome is the only film developed using the K-14 process; the majority of colour slide film uses a more standard E-6 process, which is universally available.

With the rise of digital all but killing off the amateur slide market Kodak stopped manufacturing the 25 and 200 ASA versions of the film a few years ago, leaving the 64 ASA version in production until now. There is currently only one laboratory that can develop the film, Dwayne's Photo, in Parsons, Kansas, USA, who have said they'll continue to do so for a year or so.

Personally, I'll miss Kodachrome. Back in the days when we shot everything on 35mm transparency (there are more than a million slides stored in the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Archive) the majority was on film that used the E6 process as we had an in house laboratory, but occasionally a few rolls of Kodachrome would run through the Nikon F3s our photographers used.

I can remember Willie Smith, the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ News photographer during the 1970s and 80s trying out the new Kodachrome 200 at Wimbledon. He captured a fantastic picture of Martina Navratilova diving to return a shot on centre court, the image taken on a manual focus 600mm lens was pin sharp and looked superb, I'll see if I can locate it and post later in the day.

The long turn around was not so much of an issue back then as you could rush process Kodachrome by delivering it to a location in central London, though by today's standards the whole idea of waiting seems out of place.

I loved 200 ASA Kodachrome; it had a wonderful grain structure that nothing has matched since, but I do occasionally still shoot on Kodachrome 64, though only for pleasure.

My last roll was shot earlier this year on a family holiday, and there is still something magical about popping the yellow and red roll into your camera. You feel a need to do it justice.

Anyone who has waited a week or two for the holiday snaps to return in their little yellow box will know what I mean. Three rows of card mounted transparencies holding the fruits of your labour, just glorious.

That division between taking a picture and seeing it is something that digital has taken away. That pause allows us to forget the moment, and then be surprised, or maybe disappointed, all over again when we hold the little image up to the light; it allows us to look at the scene afresh.

I'll shoot at least one more roll, but that's maybe it. I've got a few rolls left, but I will probably let them remain in the fridge, a reminder of times gone by.

Along with every other blogger, I can't end the post without mentioning that Kodachrome will of course always be remembered for at least one reason, the fact that as far as I am aware it's the only brand of film that has been immortalised in song. So perhaps the last word should be left to : "Kodachrome, they give us those nice bright colours, they give us the greens of summers, makes you think all the world's a sunny day"... and what's wrong with that.

To see some great Kodachrome moments then and it's also worth checking out .

I'd love to see your pictures shot on Kodachrome or hear from any users, past or present. You can e-mail your photos to me or comment below.

Please see our terms and conditions, but remember that the copyright remains with you. The pictures will only be used by the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ for the purposes of this article.

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It's Thursday so it must be time for a gallery of pictures from our readers. This time we asked you to send photos on the theme of damaged.

Let us know what you think by using the comment box below.

Congratulations to those whose pictures have been chosen - and if your picture didn't make it then why not send us something for next week.

We are continuing our theme on colour, or in this case a non-colour, we want you to send us your pictures on the theme of: White.

Interpret this in any way you see fit and send your pictures to us at yourpics@bbc.co.uk or .

Please include the word "White" in subject line of your message.

The deadline is midnight BST Tuesday 23 June, and remember to add your name and a caption: who, what, where and when should be enough, though the more details you give, the better your chance of being selected.

We will publish a selection of your photos this time next week.

Files should be sent as JPEGs. They shouldn't be larger than 10Mb and ideally much smaller: around 1Mb is fine, or you can resize your pictures to 1000 pixels across.

Please see our terms and conditions, but remember that the copyright remains with you. The pictures will only be used by the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ for the purposes of this project. Finally, when taking photos, please do not endanger yourself or others, take unnecessary risks or infringe any laws.

Any questions or suggestions for future themes, please use the comment form and I'll get back to you.

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Marilyn Monroe, Marlene Dietrich, Anjelica Huston, Malcolm X and Richard Burton, just a few famous faces to step in front of Eve Arnold's lens. Arnold's photograph on the set of the Misfits (above) of Monroe is arguably the shot that defines both star and photographer.

Born in Philadelphia in 1912 Arnold came late to photography, she was almost 35 when she first picked up a camera in earnest, studying with before joining in 1951.

In 1962 she left the US for England. She timed her arrival well as the Sunday Times Magazine was looking for photographers to work on its new colour section, and Arnold stepped up to the plate. According to Michael Rand, art director at the Sunday Times:

"Eve was established as a key member of the magazine team alongside and ... Eve was creative and innovative... immensely versatile."

At the back of a recent publication, Eve Arnold's People, which is edited Brigitte Lardinois, I was intrigued to find that Arnold had maintained a year-by-year list of her assignments, including the number of rolls of film shot, 212 on if you were wondering. It shows her ability to tackle a wide variety of subjects, shoulder to shoulder with film stars one minute and at a girls' school the next.

For me, Arnold's work spans the moment photojournalism moved from black and white to colour, and yet you can see her hand in every picture she takes.

In 1990 Arnold told the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ that "as soon as you pick up the camera and do it in colour it's hard not to romanticize, it's because black and white is an abstraction, you can criticise more easily."

That said, I don't see criticism in any of her pictures. She touches her photographic subjects, but ever so lightly, from the bar girl in Havana 1954, to the picture of a couple getting divorced in Moscow in 1966.

It's as if those depicted are part of her family, the images are snapshots if you like. I don't mean that in a negative way, but you get the impression Arnold is part of the furniture, even on assignments when she obviously had limited time.

In Eve Arnold's People, Jon Snow writes: "Eve Arnold posses an infinite capacity to be in the midst of what she is looking at without disrupting what she's trying to capture."

Her pictures may not have the humour of her contemporary , or the grace of but her ability to be inside a scene is second to none.

As Arnold says: "If a photographer cares about the people before the lens and is compassionate, much is given. It is the photographer, not the camera, that is the instrument." I couldn't agree more.

Eve Arnold's People is published by Thames and Hudson.

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I'm a big fan of street photography: the act of walking and interacting with others in a public space can be both enjoyable and photographically satisfying.

Street photography requires lots of patience: waiting for the various elements to merge into a pleasing picture and ensuring you are in the right place at that moment usually means lots of frustration and missed opportunities.

One man who has taken this a step further and decided to let fate rule is Przemek Wajerowicz. For a number of years, he has been photographing London from the top deck of one of the city's icons, the double decker bus, and his work can be seen on his website, .

Once he has selected his seat, then that's it - the scenes pass by the window and he has to rely on some luck and a good eye to make the most of this viewpoint.

You'd think this would be a thankless pursuit, but looking at his work, it's soon clear this is far from the case. Przemek seeks moments of visual harmony, or on occasion just something that catches his eye - often amusing, but always using colour, form and timing to good effect.

This is no short-term idea, Przemek said:

"I plan to travel on every TFL double decker route, from the first to the very last stop in both directions. Once all the routes have been completed, I will try to publish a book with tightly edited pictures from the project."

He devotes a day a week to the project as well as taking pictures on his daily commute to work, posting a picture to his website every day.

Przemek's follows in the footsteps of Tom Wood, whose project, , captured the city of Liverpool from the seat of a bus over a period of 15 years. Wood's pictures often portray the occupants of the bus, using reflections to create an almost unreal world.

Przemek takes a more literal view, relying on reality to offer up juxtapositions of people and colour, depicting the variety of scenes which we encounter, and which we often walk past, on a daily basis. To add to the feeling of continuity, he uses a digital camera with one lens, a 50mm.

He notes that:

"The main difficulty is obviously that the bus is moving and you really don't have the same control as, for example, walking. You don't have the luxury of waiting until the situation unfolds and every shot is largely determined by the pace of the bus. There have been many occasions where I have been a split second too late which can be frustrating, but I guess that makes whole thing more challenging and therefore more interesting."

Given the challenges of photographing in public areas, I was curious to know if Przemek had ever encountered any problems. He said:

"Generally, I have never had a problem with either people in the bus - though I have been asked few times by fellow passengers out of curiosity why am I taking pictures - or people I am photographing. I try to be discreet, and those that do notice can often be quite forthcoming about having their picture taken. But the moment is over very quickly and I'm usually away before anyone has a chance to complain!"

I wish Przemek well in his quest.

And I'm always on the lookout for interesting photographic projects such as this from around the UK, and indeed further afield. Do drop me a line or leave a comment below if you are working on anything at present.

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• - What's this?

Last week I was claiming that the weeks pass oh so quickly, this one however has dragged as I've been struck down by a bug. I'll spare you the details but as I haven't been in the office, this weeks' selection of pictures has been chosen by my colleague on the picture desk, Emma Lynch.

Let us know what you think by using the comment box below.

Congratulations to those whose pictures have been chosen - and if your picture didn't make it then why not try this week.

This time, we are asking you to send us your pictures on the theme: Damaged.

Interpret this in any way you see fit and send your pictures to us at yourpics@bbc.co.uk or .

Please include the word "Damaged" in subject line of your message.

The deadline is midnight BST Tuesday 16 June, and remember to add your name and a caption: who, what, where and when should be enough, though the more details you give, the better your chance of being selected.

We will publish a selection of your photos this time next week.

Files should be sent as JPEGs. They shouldn't be larger than 10Mb and ideally much smaller: around 1Mb is fine, or you can resize your pictures to 1000 pixels across.

Please see our terms and conditions, but remember that the copyright remains with you. The pictures will only be used by the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ for the purposes of this project. Finally, when taking photos, please do not endanger yourself or others, take unnecessary risks or infringe any laws.

Any questions or suggestions for future themes, please use the comment form and I'll get back to you.

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How quickly the weeks pass. This time round I've been loooking at your pictures on the theme of derelict.

.

Let me know what you think by using the comments box below.

Congratulations to those whose pictures have been chosen - and if your picture didn't make it then why not try this week.

This time, we are asking you to send us your pictures on the theme: Uplifting.

Interpret this in any way you see fit and send your pictures to us at yourpics@bbc.co.uk or .

Please include the word "Uplifting" in subject line of your message.

The deadline is midnight BST Tuesday 9 June, and remember to add your name and a caption: who, what, where and when should be enough, though the more details you give, the better your chance of being selected.

We will publish a selection of your photos this time next week.

Files should be sent as JPEGs. They shouldn't be larger than 10Mb and ideally much smaller: around 1Mb is fine, or you can resize your pictures to 1000 pixels across.

Please see our terms and conditions, but remember that the copyright remains with you. The pictures will only be used by the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ for the purposes of this project. Finally, when taking photos, please do not endanger yourself or others, take unnecessary risks or infringe any laws.

Any questions or suggestions for future themes, please use the comment form and I'll get back to you.

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As more and more of us take and share pictures of our lives and surroundings, it can become overwhelming to anyone trying to locate bodies of work that hang together, both in terms of style and content.

Many of us will only photograph a small patch - our home turf, if you like - but add all of these together and you have a comprehensive record of the start of the 21st Century, a of the modern age.

One documentary project I've been following for a while is the work of Emily Webber, who is .

The pictures are fairly simple, straight-on records of supermarkets, corner shops, discount outlets and even a massage parlour. They are unique shop fronts that are slowly disappearing.

Emily says: "It started with an interest in documenting the bits of London that I know, and more recently lead me to spreading further afield, although I still have a lot to cover."

Like many of us, Emily has to fit this project in around her work and now that she's covered her home patch and the area near her work, she spends time at weekends exploring new parts of London.

She says: "The shop fronts are a great indicator of an area, they tell the history, the prosperity and the ethnicity of a neighbourhood... these shop fronts reflect exactly what makes London so interesting."

The pictures are, for the most part, devoid of figures and yet full of the signs of city life: looking at them as a set, there is something about them that draws me in. I want to see more, even if it's just to prove that there are still shops out there beyond the usual suspects and coffee bars that seem to dominate every high street.

As Emily notes: "I am driven by wanting to capture as much of the London of the early 2000s before it disappears. I see the shops being revamped or closing regularly, sometimes before I manage to capture them."

Here you can see shops offering a mind-boggling array of goods and services, others with an inviting light drawing you in.

Individually, the pictures would be of interest, but no more than that; as a set, they are building up a valuable collection and I hope that Emily continues her quest to preserve these sights for future generations. It also shows that you don't have to travel to the other side of the planet to find a subject worthy of investigation.

You can keep up to date with Emily Webber's project on her website: .

I'd be keen to hear from anyone else who is working on photographic projects documenting their area: please use the comment box below.

UPDATE, 17:20: A few of you have been in touch and suggested a number of other projects on a similar theme:

Richard Gallon had a number of thoughts including .

, where they do at least have more sun.

Ross has pointed me towards , which is an ambitious project to collect a representative photograph of every square kilometre of Great Britain and Ireland. They are doing well with more than 1.3 million pictures so far!

Lasltly Sarah Thompson points out that photographer to photograph a number of shopkeepers.

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Anyone who has studied photography will have come across the work of the Farm Security Administration (FSA) in the United States during the 1930s.

The FSA was a government programme that documented the work of the Resettlement Administration at a time of severe depression, one that had driven many farmers and small-holders into poverty.

Roy Stryker was appointed head of the historical section and tasked with reporting and publicising the agency's work.

His team included names which now read like a Who's Who of photography: Carl Mydans, , Arthur Rothstein, Russell Lee and, of course, Dorothea Lange.

The process was fairly simple: the photographers would be sent out to rural communities, sometime for months at a time, with detailed shootings lists produced by Stryker. The result was a collection of about . It could have been more but, in the early days of the project, Stryker would punch a hole through the less successful images.

The reason I'm mentioning these pictures is that the recently released a .

Much has been written on many of these photos: Dorothea Lange's is one of the best-known pictures from the last century, and Walker Evans' vernacular style influenced generations of photographers.

Each picture in the collection helped to shape the development of photojournalism, which for the following decades took a humanitarian view and attempted to use pictures to influence world opinion.

The style faded with time and became somewhat discredited as presenting little more than the view of the photographer - of an outsider who forces his or her beliefs onto a situation. To counter this, many photojournalists and documentary photographers began to seek ways in which to place themselves at the scene, to show that the photographic representation of the subject did not spring to life from thin air, but was a conscious decision on their part to portray one moment rather than another.

One obvious example of this was the work of , who often included his own shadow in his pictures to emphasis his presence; others have used intense colours to add an unreal feel to the prints, saying that the image is not reality, just a representation of it.

Whether this is a better approach, I'll leave you to decide; personally, I think there are times when it works well, and others when a more traditional view might be appropriate, but perhaps that's just me sitting on the fence.

Either way, this set of pictures from the Library of Congress stands detailed examination, as do the stories behind the frames. Lange's picture alone is enough for a long essay as it involves manipulation (a thumb was removed from the picture), was possibly posed and the story obtained from the subject (later revealed to be ) was not as detailed as it might have been.

What is undeniable is that the work produced by this small band of photographers gives us an invaluable record of life in part of the United States, a country about to enter a world war and change forever.

It could be argued that it's a fictional view - one that fails to show the despair and instead focuses on the strength and dignity of those pictured - but in the end, their aim was to record and publicise the work of a government programme and that is a goal they met admirably.

Now, 70 years on, they are as remarkable as they were when first produced and set the benchmark for social photography for years to come.

So pour yourself a coffee and really : it'll be time well spent.

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