World Photography Day on Aug 19th

World Photography Day celebrated on August 19 each year is about remembering how special a photo can be. We may take our photographs for granted but the next time we go through our photographs, we realize that those precious moments cannot again be captured, only shared, and with precious memories and feelings that only photographs can convey.

Early cave paintings show that man has always wanted to record himself, his activities, and the environment around him. Painters of great renown have abounded through the centuries and have left remarkable visual histories of our journey through time. While the camera was not invented until the 19th century, the basic elements of a camera had been known for hundreds of years.

As early as the 1400’s it was documented that inserting a lens in a hole would produce a crisper, clearer image. The technology which was known as “camera obscura” was used by artists to sketch objects more quickly. In 1847, the first ever photograph was taken by Joseph Niepce. A few years later, Louis Daguerre, a Frenchman painter for the Opera, experimented with various methods to try and secure a permanent image.

World Photography Day originates from the invention of the Daguerreotype, a photographic process developed by Louis Daguerre. On January 9, 1839 The French Academy of Sciences announced the Daguerreotype process but a few months later on August 19, 1839 the French government announced the invention as a gift “free to the world.” Another photographic process, the Calotype, was also invented in 1839 but later announced in 1841. Together, the invention of both the Daguerreotype and Calotype processes mark 1839 as the year that photography was invented. On August 19th, celebrate photography and share your world with the world.