Acknowledgements

I finished reading Liz Gilbert's Broken Spears a photo book about Maasai life in the first decade of the twenty first century. It's a beautiful book with amazing black and white photos, the majority taken on Kodak film. I turned to the last page of acknowledgements and on the left page it says, "Elizabeth L. Gilbert's travels across Maasailand were generously sponsored by Corbis and the Eastman Kodak Company."

Not very long ago Kodak's professional film division sponsored many photographers; supporting them in their journalistic and artistic endeavors with money, film, and film processing. I'm proud to have been part of an organization that helped connect people to each other and the world through powerful photographic images. Web sites like KickStarter now provide some financial support (I received Broken Spears by giving money to Gilbert's The Last Safari film project) but they require a lot of work, essentially an artist builds a marketing campaign usually with "gifts" that are made or purchased then shipped to people who pledge specific amounts of money. This new support for the arts is in some ways better (everyone, or at least those with money, can take part) and also worse (risky or unusual projects aren't likely to raise the money they need). Next week when Kodak ceases to exist it will be the end of the "Film Age" and the beginning of another age in photography. The next photographic age starts with amazing creative potential but it's hard to imagine smart phone manufacturers supporting professional photographers in the same ways that Kodak did.

You can still find the Kodak interview with Liz Gilbert on YouTube (and interviews with many other photographers as well).