Kodak City (Installation View)

Catherine Leutenegger's showcase at the Government College of Fine Arts during Chennai Photo Biennale 2019. In its prime, Kodak employed thousands of people and turned Rochester into a wealthy town. After the digitalization of photography, the business declined. Catherine Leutenegger’s ‘Kodak City’ series, reveals what remains of Kodak as a business and the ways in which the decline of the company impacted the city of Rochester. It is a testimony that is both engaged and objective, covering a part of America’s industrial heritage that faces inevitable disappearance. It is also a way of paying homage to the father of modern photography, George Eastman (1854 -1932) in his hometown, which he transformed into the cradle of the world’s collective memory for the entire 20th century.