World Photography Day

World Photography Day (also known as World Photo Day), is a relatively new phenomenon. Australian photographer, Korske Ara, devised it's conception in 2009 as a community focused global celebration of photography and for all the joy it's given the world. Since setting the ball rolling, the celebration has gathered momentum and sees thousands of photography enthusiasts world wide get out their cameras and bombard the internet with their singularly captured moments.

Marked as a global celebration of the science and of the art of photography, it's a celebration of all things photographic. From the captive emotion that a single picture can resonate all the way through to the science of taking photos. The true purpose of today aims to inspire photographers across the planet to share a single photo with a simple purpose:

Why August 19th I hear you ask? As it so happens, way back on August 19th 1839, the French Government generously released to the world the invention of the Daguerreotype photography process. A process formally invented by French artist and chemist, Louis Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, in the early 1830's. He used a camera obscura to capture images onto copper plates coated with iodized silver (If you're interested, you can read more about the Daguerreotype photography process on wikipedia).

In early 1839, he transfered the rights to the invention to the French Government in exchange for a lifetime pension. On August 19th that same year, the French Government announced daguerreotypy free to the world as a gift. This open release of the methodology and technology was an integral step in the development of modern-day photography.

Previous discoveries of photosensitive methods and substances dating back as far as the 13th century helped Louis develop daguerreotypy. However, back in the 1820's, Louis was not the only one looking to cook up success from capturing light. The earliest known permanent photographic image was created in 1826 by a more complex process called heliography - a process thought up by Joseph Niépce. The image he created is famously known as "View from the Window at Le Gras", and the exposure time needed to create that photograph was reported to be an incredible eight hours. Later, both Niépce and Daguerre would collaborate on what was to become daguerreotypy.

From the seeds of the 1830's to the bustling 2016's, our generations have seen photography develop and engulf the planet. From a large box and cloak camera to portable 38mm to Polaroids to monstrous DSLR's and pocketable Go-Pro's. Cameras are everywhere, photography is all around us.

So, now you know the brief history of #WorldPhotoDay - Do something beautiful. Take some pictures and share your wonderful bubble with the world.

Photography Fun Facts

Here are some unchecked fun facts for you:

• Due to the recent proliferation of mobile devices with ever better cameras, more than 350 billion photos are now taken worldwide every year.
• Around 250 billion photographs have been uploaded to Facebook.
• The first photo of the Moon was in 1851.
• The first photo of the dark side of the Moon was in 1959.

Happy Birthday

Photography is a whopping 177 years old today. Happy Birthday Photography!

Creative Moose are expert commercial and corporate photographers. The views expressed here are entirely our own