The Surprising True Story of Kodak Aerochrome / Part One

Kodak Aerochrome has an origin story unlike any other film. In this video, I share the surprising history of Aerochrome from its creation to cancellation, plus its unexpected resurgence thereafter. This video is Part One of a two-part video, with Part Two focused on digitally recreating the look of Aerochrome film.
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Credits
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The Impossible Image: Richard Mosse
• The Impossible Image
Richard Mosse Interview about Congo and Infrared
• RICHARD MOSSE | EXTEND...
Images from "Infra" and "Enclave" are © Richard Mosse
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Complete gear list: kit.co/todddominey
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Photos: dominey.photo
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[@jackexplores4529]

Lomography’s lomo chrome purple is based on this film. Worth shooting a few rolls before it’s gone too

[@lvikng57]

I'd love to know more about how this film was made, and why it's so difficult/expensive to make IR films in general

[@rooowtwx]

Another video was just talking about the surreal effect it gave despite it being the story behind those photos and it felt a little uncomfortable to admire an aesthetic while almost ignoring the war torn place the photos were shot in. I thought, at first, that the red and magenta tones would at least signify the bloodshed but this in-depth history made the creative choice of Richard Mosse clearer and made more sense as well. Glad I came across this video.

[@MrGatin777]

Looking forward to part 2! Amazing work!

[@Crowborn]

This is really insanely good! I'll be sure to share it.

[@tonymckeage1028]

Great Vlog Todd, information on point as always, a great piece of history , thanks

[@ghoviemumar4101]

Commenting because this needs to be seen by other people

[@jacobleetech]

I LOVE these story style videos. The polaroid one was great too

[@RyanCara]

This is such a beautiful and well made video. Thank you!

[@MiguelDunham]

Great piece on the past and present of a creative tool in photography. I’m looking forward to seeing part two!

[@FirePhoenixAudio]

Great video on the origins of EIR. Can't wait to see part 2!

[@alessioferreri]

This video is a masterpiece Todd. Thanks for making this series.

[@raimeamin]

It’s very informative Todd!! Looking forward for the part 2... 👍

[@pinkwormm]

I love these nerdy stories behind the films and photography brands! such an amazing video

[@arianhoorn]

thank you todd for this video !!! really i'm satisfay about aerochrom film

[@tomaszmichalski51]

Thanks to share with information about aerochrome from Kodak. I didn't know about it.

[@shawnkelley7215]

Such a cool story - thanks for producing and sharing this.

[@theundefinedphotographer]

A gorgeous film stock and a beautiful video homage to said film. Thanks for such an in-depth history lesson!

[@movenmvrl1795]

i am learning so much from your channel, thanks Todd! excellent content!

[@red.velvet.pirate6987]

With how well made this video was I expected way more views. Love what you’re doing Todd

[@Korppi08]

Wow! This was superb information!

[@stevenwagner7520]

I remember shooting Kodak High Speed Infrared back in the 1980's. It was an interesting film that I miss today. Your video was well done, a good blend of geek history and an interesting application.

[@andreaspalmen8966]

I remember seeing his images at the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize show at The Photographers Gallery, London in 2014. Really fascinating work and a nice recap in your video. I enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing.

[@unbroken1010]

A few sensors have . Ricoh GR, Nikon d700 Pentax

[@XYZ-bi9eb]

thank you for this excellent video!

[@djcarlitosatl]

Fascinating! I like your style of presentation. Thank you for your well-made work!

[@andriykryvtsun6201]

Great story! Thanks!

[@pabloblanco8351]

Amazing video it's always awesome to learn something like this!!!

[@JensHarms]

Breathtaking . Thank you Sir. Brilliant info and unseen pictures for me. Great.

[@nimasun8912]

Amazing content. Just after the first few seconds, I knew I should subscribe! Keep it up!

[@paddycochrane3567]

A Great video of a fascinating story. Many Thanks!!

[@finnvalleyy]

Amazing !

[@oswin5565]

This is an amazing video. Thanks so much for sharing this knowledge with us.

[@christophharman5325]

So well done! Thank you.

[@hostynphoto]

I love it when history and photography come together

[@sjpachica3]

This is wildly interesting, moving and we'll executed!

[@zinonpaparis7402]

the quality of these videos is insane

[@keithbrewster4077]

Fascinating. Looking forward to part 2. I've dabbled with IR on my IR converted Fujifilm camera. It has been sitting in the cupboard for a while now. Time to get it out again. Aerochrome's history is very intresting and Richard Mosse's work with it fascinating. Keep up the good work Todd. Keith

[@throughmylens3530]

THANK YOU, I just ordered a Canon R6 converted to full spectrum and now I have another filter to add to my list to emulate Aerochrome film.

[@cesaradrianperezmerino6088]

Great video!

[@pahountisg]

Great story 😊

[@venugopalnair1413]

Great storytelling about a product from the Kodak range I didn't know about at all

[@juanmora8438]

great, thanks

[@jancestr1054]

soooo good

[@bobcohen4008]

I used the color infrared film for some visual experiments back in the late 60s, early 70s. Interesting stuff to use. It was good to see this film showing how someone could use the film with serious intent.

[@ddoggcasino8767]

Very nice vid thanks

[@englishfil]

I used EIR both experimentally and professionally and knew the basic history. However, I was unaware of the use in psychodelia and to the extent of Mosse's commitment to its artistic use. Thank you for showing there is always more learn.

[@lhauschild]

This is an amazing story. Thank you for doing this video. The only critique I have is that the video has a lot of artifacts from compression, even when watching at 1080p. Looking forward to the next episode, subscribed.

[@shahbazmansahia9253]

Great video! I just saw some aerochrome projects on VSCO and that brought me here =D

[@JoaquimGonsalves]

This was fascinating! Thank you for putting in the time and effort. 🙏🏽 And I arrived here after reading a comment(a helpful guy named Liam) on another channel(One Month, Two Cameras) about how the Sigma sdQuattro can be used to take Digital Aerochrome images without a filter. Look into that camera.

[@dougolupski]

Fantastic look at a mostly forgotten film stock. Its hands down my favorite film and still have 50 rolls of medium format EIR and 17 rolls of 35mm. Living in an arid region I only get to shoot in spring so I go through 4-5 rolls a year of it unless I get to travel to a place that warrants the stock.

[@modernrogue5064]

😭 I wish I had some to try, it’s too hard to find and expensive 😭

[@alexwintermeyer2265]

Very interesting video, thanks. FStoppers brought me here

[@mohammedzabeel3723]

really enjoy all of your videos...

[@JasonRenoux]

Nothing better to understand our present days by learning our history. Fascinating history that of photography. Thanks for your work 🙏🏻

[@dominey]

Thanks Jason! 🙏

[@ericdelmar2618]

Todd, another great piece. Interesting how Aerochrome leaves skin tones pretty true. With my full-spectrum IR-converted camera (and after channel swap), skin tones render much lighter and less saturated. Frankly, Aerochrome is the infrared I always wanted. Looking forward to Part II.

[@MarcelBlijleven]

Great content, subscribed!

[@pablomunne]

love ir , love your video

[@georgehanson1658]

I used to use two types of this film in the 70's. As I recall on the early type you had to use the red dot on your focus ring while the later version it wasn't required. I used it in summer mostly for locating old cabin sites, mining activity and old trails when I lived in Girdwood, Alaska. I also used it in the winter for experimenting with different filters and winter scenes. Butch King flew me around in his Citabria.

[@ideasmatter8626]

Well produced video and great presentation!

[@dominey]

Thanks!

[@thecolorsapp1403]

This is just brilliant, Todd! Looking forward to part 2.

[@FiZ]

I remember being blown away by Mosse's photos years ago, even though I didn't know much about him at the time. Years later, most of my photography is done with a full-spectrum camera, sometimes with an aerochrome-like filter! Great video, and I can hardly wait for part two

[@unbroken1010]

On Sigma sd quarto?

[@mimiblanch1406]

Beautiful storytelling. Thank you so much. I will share with my photo students.

[@dominey]

Great to hear!

[@yourfamilydocter]

Daaaamn that little factoid about album covers shot on aero chrome was awesome makes me appreciate the Jimmu Hendrix experience that much more

[@zackdecarle6178]

This was way too good to only have 8,000 views

[@rickstabile5289]

I experimented a bit with this film in the early eighties. Pretty cool stuff. Can't wait to see how you emulate it with digital tech.

[@FilmFactry]

Subscribed!

[@charlesrankin6335]

79 years old Marine disable veteran working on my bucket list. I purchase a use Coolpix love the way the picture come out. I'm going to be traveling in South Carolina for slavery and African American history. Enjoyed the Richard Mosse history of how he started shooting Aerochrome 1443 Peace.

[@Otokichi786]

I remember this stuff as Kodak Infrared Aero Ektachrome, Process E-4, ASA 100? that was used to create striking LP album covers in the 1960's. I did try a roll back then, marveling at "red trees and yellow sky" of the "normal" Yellow filter vista. Then I went back to Kodachrome and Ektachrome, since Reality is mind expanding. An E-6 version wasn't even a rumor when a job change required me to hang up my film cameras in the 1990's. So there was a (sorta) E=6 version after all? Oh well, progress leaves a lot of things in the ditch of history, eh?

[@harrisongould9460]

Very professionally done...I did subscribe. I'm a big fan of film profiles within Lightroom but have no clue how to build them.I have a lot of Mastin Labs film profiles. They seem to work perfectly with the work I do.

[@bradleybanker4427]

Analog film has 'something' that makes it pop versus digital. Guess we will see in Part 2 if that 'something' is in the film or can Lightroom reproduce it. (as a chemist, I would doubt it)

[@StudioC41]

Great video! I've actually shot this roll just recently and I have a few rolls of 120 in the freezer. Happy to share some thoughts if you have any questions on it!

[@iamnarval]

I see interesting and high quality content -> I subscribe. Peace ;)

[@AutonomousPlayground]

Epic content I'm a journalist with a fine art background, and the work of Richard Mosse was what originally made me take that transition to start working in Journalism due to that crossover. I had the thought that I was really interested in questioning the mediums and representation of subjects in journalism and I guess put more effort into the overall idiosyncratic ways we can find to represent a story that fit better than what the conventional already does. And the viewer questioning that representation again is really powerful and multi-layered than simply conveying information. Anyway I'm just rambling but for a small channel your production quality is fantastic so I hope you can get the subscribers and audience you deserve later on down the line.

[@spectrazone]

Absolutely fantastic video, it's so good to see a thorough breakdown of this wonderful film's history! Very much looking forward to what you do in the second part. Ordinarily I wouldn't hop in the comment section just to plug my own stuff, but on my channel I've just uploaded a video demonstrating a digital simulation of the Aerochrome look that I think comes fairly close, at least to Aerochrome shots I've seen taken through orange filters. If you give it a watch, I'd love to hear what you think!

[@BrasilAmbience]

Hey Todd, Your video helped me to develop a new photographic series using long exposure and aerochrome aesthetics. Now I'm working on some videos to exhibit by side the photos. How did you change the colors on the opening? Can you send me some help or tips? Thanks a lot!

[@SivertAlmvik]

Yes. That's an intro.

[@RahulAhire]

This is a very well researched video. I wonder how many hours have you spend on it? Edit: I wonder is this the reason we see pink images out of JWST as it also looks in infrared but in digitised way.

[@B0balagurak]

I think that it also sparked Lomography to create their purple film that looks like infrared but isnt. The hues are almost the same but I think that instead of capturing infrared, they used pigments that would turn a certain color when a certain wavelength of color would hit it.

[@Jay94025]

In 1964 an international team from the Soviet Union and Cuba made a film, "I am Cuba" or "Soy Cuba." From Wikipedia: "The film is shot in black and white, sometimes using infrared film obtained from the Soviet military[2] to exaggerate contrast (making trees and sugar cane almost white, and skies very dark but still obviously sunny). Most shots are in extreme wide-angle and the camera passes very close to its subjects, whilst still largely avoiding having those subjects ever look directly at the camera." The film has many other innovative aspects besides the use of Infrared film -- long continuous seemingly impossible shots controlled via a video feed to a TV set the director brought with him from the Soviet Union.

[@AsierRiosMolina]

10/10

[@LEO-de3wd]

does anybody have a link or atleast an idea where I could watch The Enclave movie? thx

[@murk.mp4760]

I guess it was a good thing it was red since the camouflage (being primarily green) is in contrast with red.

[@futurebrilliantteam8851]

yay

[@bauYPvNVuwbWQHMU]

Hi, but why are some of the camouflage uniforms of these fighters in Kongo also red? THX!

[@andykphoto]

I still have a couple rolls of EIR in my film fridge ...

[@teresaschumacher]

Hey Todd, great story! I'm a former Kodak employee with years of tech support for both Pro Imaging and Aerial Imaging divisions so of course the "Aerochrome" title caught my eye. Bummer when the market dropped and the E-4 process became so hard to find. One small correction, I think, at 2:30 when you say the red color was a "creative" choice. I recall that it was a simple shift in how the film's color layers represented the light wavelengths. Blue became green, green became visible red, and the red layer represented near infrared (up to 900 nm, much to the chagrin of customers wanting heat sensitivity). Thoughts?

[@dominey]

How cool! Thanks so much for the comment. The research I found back when I made this video stated that the particular hue that was used to represent infrared was a choice not entirely rooted in the technical, but that’s going on third party info. Sounds like you may know better than anyone! Appreciate you taking the time to comment.

[@unbroken1010]

I thought it was also used to detect dead vegetation too?

[@robwalwyn]

Hi Teresa - I am a photographer who is passionate about shooting Aerochrome and would love to get in touch to ask a few questions about any anecdotes you might have about the various Kodak infrared films if you'd be willing to get in touch? Cheers, Rob

[@kingpossie]

Anamorphic lenses were military tech first also.

[@XYZ-bi9eb]

are there any surviving color infrared film images from WW2?

[@zatic99]

yeah～ i still have a roll of it in my fridge

[@unbroken1010]

Trying to make this happen on a sigma SD quattro

[@XYZ-bi9eb]

the most prolific color infrared film shooter is dean bennici. i don't think he has any 120 color infrared film left to sell.

[@rogpalmer]

Disappointing that you didn't show any examples of Aerochrome's camouflage detection (I write as an interpreter of aerial images) but that the focus of your arm-waving talk was more about arty uses of the film. However, that approach seems popular with the commentators below.

[@ellijahsmith4445]

Great video but dude your thumb is the length of a normal human finger and it’s freaking me out.

[@inevitablecraftslab]

I cant unterdstand why youtubers film themself instead of showing something interesting. Everbody hates the interview-style stormdrum driven history-channel documentaries and the first thing they do is copy that style.

[@tarquin11x]

it breaks my heart to see this false story. it is I alone that brought aerochrome to the world. It was never available to the public before i started the project in 2007. The consumer film available before that was 35mm EIR. This is a different emulsion and never available in any other format. I made it in 120, 4x5, 8x10, 8x20 and 16mm. the video is so full of mistakes. it was all only my idea to bring it to the public. Mosse contacted me and i told him everything i know after years of testing and research. i told him the filters, the camera setup, what to watch out for, potential errors, everything. he did make good use of that info, i must say. the 16mm was not stored in a freezer in California. it all came directly from me here in Germany, although i am from California. i was sweating watching this video. I was not mentioned once and its my project exculsively. Mosse visited me 3 times to buy the film and pick my brain about every aspect of this film material. I had already been shooting the stuff 2 years before he called me. He was not the first or even the 100th customer I had. No, he did not start the thing! The video is just wrong. The film used back then at the beginning of the video was not aerochrome 1443. Sad how Todd talks like everything he is reporting is fact. this is not the truth behind aerochrome. breaks my heart really. hey Todd Dominey, time to call me and get the true story right please! www.aerochrome.shop/about

[@unbroken1010]

Don't let us catch you supporting con man zelinsky or thr Ukraine proxy war while screaming over false stories ..

[@aerochrome_source]

i am the guy behind aerochrome. not mosse. he came much laeter into the story. he did do some great work though. right? funny how this guy and nobody ever mentions me. i brought aerochrome to the world! just little old me. dean bennici my brain-child and my idea. this video is full of errors. too bad the guy doesnt fix it.

[@maximme]

and we have problems with Huawei being link to chinese military BUT its okay when we do it.....