All over the world, August 19 is celebrated as the World Photographic Day. It is all about celebrating photography whether you see yourself as an amateur, hobbyist, or professional. It is considered to be the best and special day for celebration of photographers and photography profession. Most of us wait for the day by organizing photo exhibition competition lecture, workshop, seminar, etc. But very few of us know why August 19 is celebrated as the World Photography Day.
In fact the first announcement of photograph was made on August 19, 1839 in France. The date behind the World Photographic Day originates from the invention of the daguerreotype, a photography process developed by Joseph Nicaphore Niepie and louis Daguerre in 1837. On January 9, 1839, the France Academy of Science announced the Daguerreotype process. A few months later, on August 19, 1839, the French Government purchased the patent and announced the invention as a gift free to the world. The invention of both the daguerreotype and Catotype mark 1839 as a year that photography was invented.
louis-Jacques Mande Daguerre was a French artist and physicist. He is recognised for his invention of a Dauguerreotype process. He is known as father of photography. Photography is a word derived from the Greek word photos “light” and Graphein “draw”. The word was first used by scientist Sir John FW Herschel in 1839. It is a method of recording
images by the action of light or related to radiation on a sensitive material.
The photography process has been developed through a series of refinements and improvements in the first 20 years. Photography started with the discovery with camera Obscura. In ancient times camera obscuras was used to form images on walls in darkened rooms, image formation via a pinhole.
In 1884 George Eastman of Rochester, New York developed dry gel on paper or film which replaced the plate of toxic chemicals.
In 1888 Eastman’s Kodak Camera came to the market with the slogan “You press the bottom, we do the rest”.
Photography is an invention that has revolutionised the way we see the world. Today, we can share memories across the globe in seconds. The revolution of computer based digital photography was introduced in the year 1990.
A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you, the less you know. Photography is the only language that can be understood anywhere in the world. It is a unique and creative medium of self expression. Photographs are mute witness, give them language they will speak truth.
(The writer is Assistant Chief Technical Officer (Photography) ICAR, Cuttack, e-mail id: prakashkar29@yahoo.co.in)