On June 21 2010, the longest day of the year, Eastman Kodak announced the demise of Kodachrome - arguably the world's most successful colour film. The film has been on the market in various forms for 74 years, but has now become the latest victim of the digital revolution. Kodachrome gained the respect of both professional and amateur photographers across the globe, and was regarded for much of its life as the best medium for capturing true colours in fine-grain images. Indeed, it is claimed that a 35mm Kodachrome image contains more information than a similar frame produced by a 20 megapixel digital camera.

The final rolls of the product are to be given to the George Eastman House photography museum in Rochester, New York. Steve McCurry, the National Geographic photographer who captured the extraordinary and now world-famous image of the Afghan refugee, will expose one of these final rolls and donate the images to the museum.