Dr. C. E. Kenneth Mees
1882-1960
Inductee Sponsor: Eastman Kodak Company
About
Dr. C.E. Kenneth Mees was known worldwide for his work in photographic science and as an authority on complex color photography processing. He devoted his life to the establishment of the science of photography. From the laboratories under Mees’ direction came outstanding research achievements including home movies, panchromatic films and new processes of color photography.
At University College, London, Mees and Samuel Sheppard worked together on the theory of the photographic process. Their theses, published as a book, Investigations on the Theory of the Photographic Process, was known to photographic workers as “Sheppard & Mees.”
From 1906 through 1912, Mees worked for Wratten & Wainwright, Ltd. While there, he manufactured a successful series of panchromatic plates, light filters and darkroom safelights. In 1912 he went to work for Eastman Kodak Company where he organized and directed the research laboratory. He later became Director of Research and Development for Kodak.
He also helped to found several other departments including the first school of aerial photography; a synthetic organic chemistry department; and a photographic apparatus department.
He was the author of over 150 publications and received many photographic and scientific honors. Included among those are the Progress Medal of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain; the Henry Draper Medal of the National Academy of Sciences; and the Franklin Medal. Mees was a Fellow in the Royal Photographic Society; and Honorary Fellow in the Photographic Society of America; and an Honorary Master of Photography from the Photographers’ Association of America.