Summary

Colour photograph of the interior of the Kodak Australasia Pty Ltd shop on Collins Street, Melbourne, circa 1960s.

This photograph of the interior of the Collins St retail store shows a man at the service counter with two young women. There appears to be a thematic promotion of photography and Kodak products based on the idea of 'Happiness'. A large poster in the background reads, 'Photography Adds to Human Happiness' and text along the back wall reads: 'Lifetime in a happy cavalcade of pictures'.

The image also features a stand-alone Kodak display on the right - the first of the open display merchandising units used by the company. Ordinarily, products had been kept behind glass until this point, but these units had outfits propped up on wire racking in a free standing unit. These were often given away to dealers for free in exchange for large purchase orders.

A new look modern sales area was launched around January 1966, using these open display units and modern counters. The launch was reported in the Kodak publication 'Sales News', issued January 15th 1966.

Kodak manufactured and distributed a wide range of photographic products to Australasia, such as film, paper, chemicals, cameras and miscellaneous equipment. Its client base included amateur and professional photographers, as well as specialist medical and graphic art professionals who used photography, x-ray and other imaging techniques.

This photograph is part of the Kodak collection of products, promotional materials, photographs and working life artefacts collected from Kodak Australasia in 2005, when the Melbourne manufacturing plant at Coburg closed down.

Description of Content

Image of people in a shop that sells cameras, film and photographic equipment.

Physical Description

Colour photograph printed on light weight photographic paper, landscape format.

More Information