The Rise, the Fall, and Fracture of an American Icon - Eastman Kodak

Founded in 1888 by George Eastman, Eastman Kodak transformed photography by introducing a small, easy-to-use camera that used roll film. The company’s famous slogan, “You press the button, we do the rest,” reflected its revolutionary goal of making photography accessible to everyday people rather than just professionals. In 1892, the business was incorporated as the Eastman Kodak Company of New York, and as its global footprint expanded, a New Jersey–based holding corporation was established in 1901. These two entities operated simultaneously until 1936, when the New York corporation was dissolved and its assets transferred to the New Jersey branch, creating the corporate structure that would define Kodak for decades. This business model, built around mass production and chemical manufacturing, allowed Kodak to control every step of the photographic process—from film development and paper to chemicals and retail distribution—cementing one of the most profitable vertical monopolies in American industrial history.

Throughout the mid-20th century, Kodak became synonymous with innovation. It introduced Kodachrome in 1935, the first commercially successful amateur color film, followed by Kodacolor in 1942, the world’s first true color negative film. The brand’s influence extended beyond consumer use: Kodak played a key role in major scientific and historical events. During World War II, the company managed the Y-12 plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, for the Manhattan Project, supporting uranium enrichment while also providing reconnaissance film for Allied intelligence. By the 1960s, Kodak’s technology helped shape the era of space exploration. Its systems captured the first photograph of Earth from deep space, and specialized camera equipment made by Kodak enabled the iconic images taken on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission. At its peak, Kodak employed over 145,000 people worldwide and controlled roughly 90% of U.S. film sales and 85% of camera sales—an unrivaled dominance in the global imaging market.

Yet the seeds of the company’s decline were planted during its era of greatest power. In 1975, Kodak engineer Steve Sasson built the world’s first digital camera—an 8-pound prototype that recorded black-and-white images to a cassette tape. Although Kodak patented the technology in 1978 and later developed the world’s first DSLR in collaboration with Nikon in 1991, executives consistently downplayed digital imaging. Internal memos from the period show Kodak leadership feared undermining its high-margin film and paper business, which accounted for the majority of revenue and profits. As competitors such as Sony, Canon, and later Fujifilm invested aggressively in digital imaging, Kodak attempted to protect its legacy business with slow, incremental digital products rather than a full strategic pivot. By the 2000s, digital photography had overtaken film almost completely, and Kodak—despite owning many of the foundational patents—found itself behind the curve. Years of shrinking revenue, rising pension obligations, and a costly transition to digital ultimately pushed the company to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2012.

Kodak’s bankruptcy led to one of the most consequential fractures in the history of the brand. A massive $2.8 billion liability owed to the company’s United Kingdom pension fund forced a restructuring solution that split Kodak into two independent entities. In 2013, the original Eastman Kodak Company retained the commercial printing, industrial film, specialty chemicals, and advanced materials divisions, shedding its consumer-facing operations. Meanwhile, consumer photography, kiosks, global distribution of photographic film, and the rights to manage the “Kodak Moments” brand were transferred to a new British company, Kodak Alaris, owned entirely by the UK pension plan. This restructuring meant that the beloved consumer brand no longer belonged to the same company that manufactured Kodak film, creating a permanent and often confusing divide between brand identity and product manufacturing.

Following the split, Eastman Kodak shifted toward industrial markets, including motion picture film (supported by long-term contracts with major Hollywood studios), functional printing, and specialty materials used in electronics and packaging. The company briefly reentered national headlines in July 2020 when the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation announced a planned $765 million loan to repurpose Kodak’s chemical manufacturing facilities for pharmaceutical ingredient production as part of the COVID-19 response. Kodak’s stock erupted by over 1,000 percent, but the project collapsed following scrutiny surrounding executive stock options granted shortly before the announcement. Although regulators later cleared Kodak of wrongdoing, the loan was never issued, forcing the company to seek alternative applications for its chemical and coating technologies, including materials for electric vehicle batteries and specialized films used in industrial manufacturing.

Meanwhile, Kodak Alaris continued operating the consumer side of the brand, licensing the Kodak name for photographic products, managing global film distribution, and maintaining the popular Kodak Moments retail systems. In the years after the split, a resurgence in analog photography—driven by younger generations rediscovering film—brought unexpected stability to Kodak Alaris. Despite this, the company remained bound by its pension obligations until 2024, when the UK’s Pension Protection Fund sold Kodak Alaris to Kingswood Capital Management, a Los Angeles–based private equity firm. This sale once again shifted control of the consumer brand, separating it even further from the original Eastman Kodak Company, which continues to manufacture the film stock that Kodak Alaris sells.

Today, the Kodak name exists across two completely independent businesses: Eastman Kodak, the American industrial manufacturer based in Rochester, New York, and Kodak Alaris, the private equity–owned British company that controls the consumer-facing brand and retail ecosystem. What was once a unified American titan of industry has become a fractured legacy—split between two countries, two ownership structures, and two entirely different corporate missions. Kodak’s rise, fall, and fragmentation remain one of the most studied cautionary tales in business history: a company that invented the future but could not bring itself to embrace it.