Photo by Garett Fisbeck, The Vista

On Jan. 19, Kodak filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, after years of financial hardship. While the move doesn’t necessarily spell the end of Kodak, it is unlikely the company will ever recapture its former glory.

Filing under the Chapter 11 bankruptcy code protects the company from its creditors while it attempts to restructure its business. The company secured a $650 million loan from Citigroup, in order to “to pay vendors and other suppliers for all post-petition goods and services, and to operate its day-to-day business activities.”

While many factors led to Kodak’s troubles, many agree that among the largest contributing factors would be the transition from traditional film to digital photography. In 1975, Kodak engineer Steven Sasson invented the first digital camera. While it pales in comparison to today’s digital cameras, it would become an industry-changing innovation.

Despite inventing the technology that paved the way of the digital photography revolution, Kodak failed to capitalize on the idea. According to UCO Department of Art Professor Sarah Hearn, “Kodak had the knowledge and capacity to do this stuff early, but they were arrogant with what they had and what they had achieved.”

While Kodak does currently manufacture digital cameras, their name is synonymous with film, an association that started with the founding of the company by George Eastman 132 years ago. Eastman revolutionized photography with his invention of film in rolls and introducing affordable cameras, making photography readily available to the masses.

With the transition to digital photography, film is becoming less commonplace these days. “Anybody from the 25-40 range has experience with film, but there are those younger who’ve never seen it, or don’t even know, the idea of 35mm means nothing to them,” Hearn said.

In recent years Kodak has discontinued production of some of its different types of film, most notably Kodachrome in 2009, which had been sold for 74 years. In 2011 Kodak discontinued two more films, Ektachrome E200 and Plus X 125.a

For photographers, the trend of Kodak discontinuing it’s various film types is concerning.

“Its been harder and harder to find film, not just by Kodak but any company now in the professional films, and I’m scared that its going to go away,” Jesse Miller, UCO photography professor, said.

Miller believes that large corporations may eventually stop producing film, but smaller, independent companies will take their place and supply film for the demand that still exists. Many professional photographers utilize both traditional and digital formats, as both ultimately have different characteristics.

For Hearn, the process associated with film photography is almost magical, not knowing how a photo will turn out until you’ve completed the chemical process of developing it. Digital photography is instantaneous and standardized, while film can be full of variations, that can lend to surprising results that digital can’t compare to.

For now, Kodak says it is business as usual. They released a press statement detailing the company would be continuing to pay it’s employees wages and continuing their benefits, going forward with it’s customer related programs, and honoring obligations to it’s post-petition suppliers.

While it is unknown how Kodak will fare after filing for bankruptcy protection, changes will need to be made for the company’s continued survival.

“I think it’ll have to break away and have two separate companies. One that deals more with the digital side and maybe more of the professional/consumer side of it,” he said. “One that maybe, if they decide to keep it, would be a smaller company that is making specialty films, but not the big company, I don’t think will be around anymore.”