George Eastman's Legacy

George Eastman

In the 125 years since it’s beginning, George Eastman and the Eastman Kodak Company arguably had a bigger influence on photography than anyone in history and Eastman is today recognized for the innovative contributions he made toward photography.

Perhaps the most important advancement in photographic processing came in 1884 when George Eastman produced film technology. Eastman; an American philanthropist and entrepreneur secured a patent for the first functional, dry photographic film in roll form, and it became known as ‘Eastman American film’.

The Kodak (1888)

He went on to found the Eastman Kodak Company, one of the first companies to mass-produce photography equipment, and in 1888, Eastman patented the first publicly affordable camera, the ‘Kodak’, with the slogan; ‘You press the button – we do the rest.’ This camera held 100 exposures of film, and once exposed, the entire device was returned to the Kodak company to have its film processed and re-loaded. Eastman’s first Kodak camera marked the birth of amateur, snap-shot photography, a market that the company aimed their products toward for decades to come.

Kodak developed the famous ‘Brownie’ camera series, numerous film variations and processes, as well as producing film for the growing motion picture business. As the company grew, however, so did Eastman’s obsession with the legacy he would leave. Having never married and fathering no children, Eastman saw Kodak as his life’s work and for what he would be remembered. He began to donate much of his fortune although continuing to have a heavy involvement in the Kodak company until his retirement in 1925.

 

Eastman with Thomas Edison 

Eastman’s walk slowed to a gradual shuffle and he found difficulty standing straight. Suffering with spinal stenosis, a degenerative bone disease, He became somewhat of a recluse in later years, confessing; ‘there isn’t much to live for’. On March 14, 1932, while lying in bed, Eastman (aged 77) fired a single bullet into his heart and took his own life, leaving a note that read:

‘To my friends;

My work is done,

Why wait?’

Thousands gathered to mourn George Eastman, he had provided many people with successful careers, helped to improve cities and schools yet he had also created an affordable way to visually capture warm, simple and happy moments in an individuals life and preserve them for reminiscence, a radical idea for the time, one that became the legacy of George Eastman's life.