Dresden Engle's Posts

What may be the earliest film footage from the Civil War era has been discovered in the motion picture vaults at George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film, where preservation officers plan to immediately begin restoration.

The three-minute reel, which archivists estimate was filmed in 1861 or 1862, reveals an active battlefield as well as behind-the-scenes footage of Union soldiers in encampments and marching in formation.

After finding the unmarked reel and after determining its authenticity, Eastman House contacted filmmaker Ken Burns. He plans to visit the museum immediately to begin research.

“This moving footage would have significantly enhanced my Civil War documentary,” said filmmaker Ken Burns, who earned an Emmy® Award for his nine-part documentary The Civil War (1990), which featured thousands of still photographs. “We are seriously considering opening up the film to include this priceless new material.”

Eastman House preservation staff has painstakingly created digital scans of the rare and fragile footage, allowing for the creation of online video.

Click on the video link below to be among the first to witness history – the first motion pictures ever captured of the Civil War!

Sixty years ago today  — March 2, 1951 — the 535-seat Dryden Theatre welcomed its first audience and film screening.

The Greek Revival Dryden Theatre.

The theatre is named for, and built with donated funds from, Ellen Dryden and her husband, George, to honor the film legacy of George Eastman, the founder of Kodak and father of motion picture film. Ellen Dryden was Eastman’s niece, but was as close to him as a daughter. Her descendants remain friends and supporters of the museum to this day.

George Eastman with his niece Ellen Dryden, as well s his mother, Maria, and Ellen’s young son George Eastman Dryden.

Six decades later the Greek-Revival theater continues to screen films seven days a week, with nightly films Tuesday through Saturday and senior matinees on Monday afternoon.

The featured films are from the Eastman House’s extensive archive as well as fellow archives and major studios. Titles include classics, silent films, international films, cult favorites, and Rochester premieres. The Dryden offerings also include series honoring actors, filmmakers, and genres.

The long list of visiting artists and award recipients who have graced the Dryden include Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Tony Curtis, Audrey Hepburn, Jimmy Stewart, Frank Capra, Fred Astaire, and Mary Pickford,

While the Dryden Theatre was being constructed in 1950, seven rolls of acetate microfilm recording the life of George Eastman were deposited inside the cornerstone. Unique interior features of the Dryden include the lobby floor made from Italian-imported marble.

Opening Night at the Dryden Theatre, March 2, 1951.

And while the state-of-the-art projection and sound were recently upgraded in the theater, its interior looks very much as it did on opening night.

The first film screened at the Dryden was Jean Renoir’s silent film Nana (1926). Other films screened during the first series included Don Juan starring John Barrymore; The Docks of New York, directed by Josef von Sternberg; and The White Hell of Pitz Palu, directed by G.W. Pabst.

At various points throughout 2011, the Dryden’s 60^th anniversary will be celebrated via special screenings.

Last Thursday was a day in history that even Paul Simon longed wouldn’t happen as he sang “Mama, don’t take my Kodachrome away.”

It was the final day Kodachrome was being accepted for processing anywhere in the world, as Dwayne’s Photo in Parsons, Kansas, had the glory of being the final lab to create those “nice bright colors … greens of summers … (that make) you think all the world’s a sunny day” (as per Simon’s lyrics). And these final hours of processing — expected to be completed this week — take place 75 years after Kodachrome was unveiled in 1935.

Envelopes filled with rolls of Kodachrome arrived from around the globe, as media from around the globe also descended upon Dwayne’s to capture this moment in history. Many of these media folks also contacted George Eastman House — including CBS News Sunday Morning, ABC World News, The New York Times, and Al Jazeera — to obtain related photographs to illustrate news stories and to speak with an expert who could put this pop-culture icon known as Kodachrome into context. That expert was Eastman House’s curator of technology, Todd Gustavson (who conducted countless interviews during his holiday vacation.)

The passing of Kodachrome has been news, of course, since Kodak announced in 2009 the end of the film’s production, due to dwindling sales and the difficulty photographers had having it processed. Kodak decided the final roll would be given to National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry, who will give these prints to George Eastman House later this year. He chose New York City and India as the backdrop for these precious 36 frames.

Why was Kodachrome so popular? Well, the search to produce stable and permanent images in natural color dates to the very beginning of photography. Fast-forward to April 1935, when Kodak introduced Kodachrome film. It was considered by many the first modern multi-layer color transparency film. First rolled out as an amateur 16mm ciné film, the still photography version became available in September of the next year in 35mm and 828 roll film sizes. Larger sheet film was offered to the professional beginning in 1938, although Kodachrome was the film that brought color photography to the amateur photographer.

Countless baby-boom families documented their personal histories, birthdays, graduations, holidays, and vacations on Kodachrome, creating slide-shows, projected with their Kodaslide projectors to show off imagery to friends and relatives. Its brilliant colors were also highly popular with magazine photographers. National Geographic used it exclusively for more than half a century.

Kodachrome was the culmination of many years of investigation, with the research preformed by two professionally trained musicians, pianist Leopold Godowsky, Jr. and violinist Leopold Mannes, who Kodak moved to Rochester in 1930 to work on the project. Their research papers, along with many Kodachrome artifacts, are in the archives at Eastman House.

The finished product was a film like no other. This multi-layer film contained no dye couplers, but rather the color dyes were added to the appropriate film layer during processing. Processing the film in this manner gave Kodachrome images their unique saturated color look, and created a very stable fade resistant color images.

“With a production life span of nearly 75 years, Kodachrome was one of the longest-lived of the light-sensitive products,” Gustavson said. “Its name was geographically memorialized with Utah’s Kodachrome Basin State Park, idealized by the Paul Simon song of the same title. Kodachrome, like the Barbie doll and Schwinn Sting-Ray, became a pop-culture icon product of the twentieth century. This shouldn’t be looked at as a sad day, but rather as a celebration of Kodachrome.”

And we’ll let Paul take us out …

 “I love to take a photograph

 so, mama, don’t take my Kodachrome away.

 Mama, don’t take my Kodachrome,

 Mama, don’t take my Kodachrome,

 Mama, don’t take my Kodachrome away.”

Eastman House formally opened its latest exhibition last night at the 1285 Avenue of the Americas Gallery. 60 from the 60s: Selections from George Eastman House features 10 of the most significant photographers from the 1960s. Dr. Alison Nordström, curator of photographs for Eastman House and of this exhibition, led media and invited guests on a tour of the exhibition.

Dr. Alison Nordström

From left to right:  Bonnie Gordon, John Pfahl, Colin Thomson, Marvin Kitman, and Ben Fernandez on tour with Dr. Nordström

The exhibition also celebrates the 50th anniversary of the 42-story building at 1285 Avenue of the Americas. The Skidmore, Owings & Merrill-designed building, constructed in 1960, sits on Sixth Avenue between 51st and 52nd streets in Manhattan— right across from Radio City Music Hall.

DISSENTERS, 1967, by Benedict J. Fernandez. George Eastman House collections

That same decade also saw many new photography styles come to life— collage, street photography, photojournalism coverage of riots. The 60-print exhibit from the Eastman House archive explores each of these styles through photographers who were just beginning to create a name for themselves as well as established artists then in the midst of successful careers. They include Harry Callahan, Benedict J. Fernandez, Hollis Frampton, Betty Hahn, Robert Heinecken, Mary Ellen Mark, Roger Mertin, Arnold Newman, Aaron Siskind, and Garry Winogrand.

The selection reveals high modernism at its apogee happily co-existing side by side with burgeoning postmodernism: Arnold Newman was well-known for his commercial and art photographs, while Harry Callahan’s street portraits and beautifully framed architectural views had enormous influence on his students and contemporaries. Robert Heinecken appropriated photographs to create his collage-like works, while Benedict J. Fernandez was embedded in the protest movement, creating powerful reportage that presented both sides of some of the most volatile issues of the time. Street photographer Garry Winogrand captured the essence of the period with his surreal images at a time when Aaron Siskind had shifted away from his documentary style of the 1930s toward abstractions of graffiti and images that flatten the photographic plane.

60 from the 60s is on view through Feb. 18, 2011.

Today marks the 156th anniversary of George Eastman’s birth— July 12, 1854. At George Eastman House we celebrate Eastman’s legacy in imaging and philanthropy every day. But his birthday is a good time for the rest of Rochester to pay tribute to the “Father of Rochester,” since our region would not be as rich in culture, health care, business, or education if it had not been for George Eastman. For many years community residents, including newspaper columnists, have rallied to make Eastman’s birthday an official local holiday.

Eastman wanted Rochester to be the “best city in which to live, work, and raise a family.” And he put his money where he mouth was, giving the bulk of his fortune to Rochester institutions and charities, half to the University of Rochester alone.

Yet, most do not realize how much Eastman did for our city, since he made many donations anonymously and preferred to bow out of ribbon cuttings or dedications in his honor. He was a modest man, who pushed the name Kodak rather than “Eastman Kodak” and named organizations after his friends rather than himself, such as Strong Hospital in tribute to the friend who helped him start Kodak, Henry Alvah Strong.

To get a sense of Eastman’s impact on Rochester, you can take a driving tour of  ”George Eastman’s Rochester,” which includes many of the organizations, parks, and businesses he influenced and supported.

Just click here to download the driving tour—  and you are ready, set, go!

[Even if you're not in the Rochester area, the map is a great way to get to know our city and see what a difference one person can make ...and there's even a crossword puzzle!]