World Photography Day is observed worldwide on 19th of August every year with a lot of zeal and enthusiasm. The day is not only celebrated by the staunch followers of photography, but all the people across the globe irrespective of their professions and interests come together and inspire the coming generations to understand the importance of photography.
WorldPhotographyDay.com is currently accepting submissions for photos to be featured on our site, for the world to appreciate!
On this particular day, millions of people capture different ideas and share their world with others, try to dwell in the imaginations of other photographers and moreover try bringing more happiness through the means of photography.
World Photography Day:
In a world where billions of photographs are uploaded every hour, World Photography Day inspires many photographers from around the world to disseminate their idea of a single picture with their single purpose, yet motivating multiple minds to think different.
From day to day life to unbelievable landscapes, this day witnesses a global gallery of images being captured by people with different skills, levels, knowledge living in a diverse range of countries and culture.
World Photography Day is celebrated so that people around the world can communicate their feelings and express themselves through the art of photography. The whole idea behind the day is to hold discussions about photography and encourage those who want to pursue photography as a hobby or career. At the same time, on this day the pioneers who inspired others to take up this skill are remembered for their contribution.
Significance And History:
The origin of the day lies in the invention of the Daguerrotype, a photographic process which was developed by Frenchmen Lois Daguerre and Joseph Nicephore Niepce in 1837. According to reports, on January 9, 1839, the French Academy of Sciences made an announcement regarding the Daguerreotype. After 10 days, the French government got the patents and said that this invention was a gift to the world, without any copyright.
World’s First Selfie:
In 1839, it was American photo enthusiast Robert Cornelius who clicked the world’s first selfie. Of course, at that time he didn’t know that it would be referred to as a selfie in the future. He had set up his camera, and clicked the image by removing the lens cap, after which he ran into the frame. On the back Robert had written, “The first light picture ever taken 1839”.
Photography Day in Today’s World:
There’s a photographer hidden in each one of us. If you don’t believe us, just take a quick look at your Instagram page – there are beautiful landscapes, kitschy shots with dramatic backgrounds, shots of yummy food and those #followmeto shots.
And for the ones who want to explore and go to some of the best spots for photography, just look around areas in your city, the various historical spots and go out and explore. Click photos, share them on your social media, take photography courses and keep improving!
Theme of World Photography Day:
Every year, the World Photography Day has its own theme. The theme is decided as per the parameters set in accordance with the observance of the day. The World Photography Day on 19th of August 2017 was observed on the theme of “Understanding Clouds“. The main objective is to produce a user- friendly digital based photograph which is both, an authoritative and comprehensive photograph.
Various photographic societies will organize online and offline photographic contests based on different categories. The contest encourages people from all ages, sections, professions and customs to give their contribution share their stories and let others learn from their experiences.
World Photography Day Theme:
- 2017: Understanding Clouds
- 2018: Be Nice
- 2019: is yet to come
- 2023: Landscapes
- 2024: An Entire Day
About Photography:
Photography is a vast subject, and it cannot be explained in just two lines. In layman’s terms, photography is an art of capturing light in a camera to create an image. In today’s world, photography has become a hobby to at least 1 in 5 people because of its technical innovations. Apart from this, today’s generation is very interested in sharing their experiences through photographs on social media. Photography has its types as follows.
- Landscape photography
- Portrait photography
- Wildlife photography
- Travel photography
- Street photography
- Newborn photography
- Macro photography
World Photography Day Greeting Cards:
How World Photography Day Is Celebrated?
Since 2010, World Photography Day has been celebrated across the globe to encourage and motivate people by letting them know by the means of seminars that what would it be like to live in a world without photographs. On this day many people take part in competitions and art gallery events to showcase their work, where they have put a lot of their efforts to make their best pieces.
Anybody can get involved in these contests, no matter how much experience one has or how many years of experience one carries with oneself. The organizing teams along with the sponsors of such events conduct worldwide media events, campaigns and other such activities to gather people to spread the knowledge of photography.
The one major problem with photography is that the profession needs a lot of investment and it becomes a little difficult for a start up to arrange for financiers to support his further plans. The photography Day celebration is one-of-its-kind and provides solution to such start ups.
People from all the sectors come and join the exhibitions, not only they admire the work but also hire people for the projects where they are interested to invest and in such ways this day provides platform for the youngsters to believe in their hard work and show their talent to the rest of the world. It is all about celebrating and acknowledging photography whether one is an amateur, hobbyist or a professional.
Some of the examples of events held in recent years across the world are as follows:
India
In India, World Photography Day is celebrated with a lot of zeal and fervor. Not only it is celebrated in its national capital but all over the country in all the states in the form of several activities undertaken by different groups of people. Students from various universities organize inter college competitions. One such event was recently organized by the students of Sri Prakash Vidyaniketan.
There, the renowned wildlife Photographer Captain Suresh Sharma, fashion photographer B.K. Agarwal and Professional photographer Prabal Mohanty attended as special guests. These luminaries shared their insights into the art of photography. Likewise the members of Professional Photographers and videographers Association celebrated World Photography Day at Y.V.S. Murthy Auditorium, Andhra University College of Engineering. Registrar V. Uma Maheshwar Rao inaugurated the photo exhibition.
Every year, Eye testing camps, cultural activities and presentation of awards to meritorious students also forms a part of this countrywide celebration. Not only this, a number of exhibitions all around the country are also organized where the work is much praised, the funds collected thereafter are utilized for philanthropic purposes.
United States of America
USA is home to the giant application owner Mark Zuckerberg. In the recent past, Facebook became a platform for a number of people across the globe to appreciate the work of photographers. World Photographic Forum is a Facebook group for the photo lovers, of the photo lovers and by the photo lovers. The forum started awarding the photographs from 1st of February 2017.
Here the photographs are scrutinized by renowned Facebook mentors of this group and best images are declared as the Curator Choice on a day to day basis. Not only this but people from all over the country, welcome the day with wide open arms, take part in the contests and appreciate each other’s work.
France
The World Photography Day is much awaited in France more because the origin of photography has been witnessed here. People welcome the day with much happiness and various contests are run. Not only various exhibitions are set up in the public and private sector but the works of amateur are put down the street and everybody appreciates the works.
French people share their leisure time between practicing sports, clicking pictures and going to the cinema. They also either go to the sea or to the mountains, do some walking, share time together and cherish the day as it gives them the opportunity to capture the moment of today forever.
England
Each year World Photography Day is welcomed in England with much joy. In England, photography is celebrated during the entire year through the means of various awards and ceremonies. People from various countries take part in the famous World Photography Awards held annually in London, England. The Sony World Photography Awards reveals the winners and runner ups in their open category in the month of January that rewards the single best images in architecture, portraits, wildlife and more by photographers from around the world.
There are also other special categories like travel, holidays and lifestyle. The celebration of World Photography Day provides a wide platform for the people of England to spread awareness of various problems faced by the country by the means of photography. Seminars are kept on the theme of the most substantial issues which the country is coming across and in this way photograph becomes a medium of spreading awareness amongst the people of England.
World Photography Day Facebook Covers:
Inspirational Quotes for Photographers:
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. But I wonder, what else do “they” say? In order to find out I’ve culled together the best quotes on the subject of photography. I hope they inspire you.
- “Photography is the story I fail to put into words.” ~ Destin Sparks
- “When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.” ~ Ansel Adams
- “In photography there is a reality so subtle that it becomes more real than reality.” ~ Alfred Stieglitz
- “There is one thing the photograph must contain, the humanity of the moment.” ~ Robert Frank
- “Taking an image, freezing a moment, reveals how rich reality truly is.” ~ Anonymous
- “Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever… It remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.” ~ Aaron Siskind
- “We are making photographs to understand what our lives mean to us.” ~ Ralph Hattersley
- “A thing that you see in my pictures is that I was not afraid to fall in love with these people.” ~ Annie Leibovitz
- “You don’t take a photograph. You ask quietly to borrow it.” ~ Unknown
- “Photography for me is not looking, it’s feeling. If you can’t feel what you’re looking at, then you’re never going to get others to feel anything when they look at your pictures.” ~ Don McCullin
- “A portrait is not made in the camera but on either side of it.” ~ Edward Steichen
- “It’s one thing to make a picture of what a person looks like, it’s another thing to make a portrait of who they are.” ~ Paul Caponigro
- “The best thing about a picture is that it never changes, even when the people in it do.” ~ Andy Warhol
- “Taking pictures is like tiptoeing into the kitchen late at night and stealing Oreo cookies.” ~ Diane Arbus
- “To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place… I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.” ~ Elliott Erwitt
- “The picture that you took with your camera is the imagination you want to create with reality.” ~ Scott Lorenzo
- “If the photographer is interested in the people in front of his lens, and if he is compassionate, it’s already a lot. The instrument is not the camera but the photographer.” ~ Eve Arnold
- “A tear contains an ocean. A photographer is aware of the tiny moments in a persons life that reveal greater truths.” ~ Anonymous
- “The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.” ~ Dorothea Lange
- “Essentially what photography is is life lit up.” ~ Sam Abell
- “I don’t trust words. I trust pictures.” ~ Gilles Peress
- “I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn’t photograph them.” ~ Diane Arbus
- “Taking pictures is savoring life intensely, every hundredth of a second.” ~ Marc Riboud
- “Once you learn to care, you can record images with your mind or on film. There is no difference between the two.” ~ Anonymous
- “Photograph: a picture painted by the sun without instruction in art.” ~ Ambrose Bierce
- “Photography is truth.” ~ Jean-Luc Godard
- “A good photograph is one that communicates a fact, touches the heart and leaves the viewer a changed person for having seen it. It is, in a word, effective.” ~ Irving Penn
- “Beauty can be seen in all things, seeing and composing the beauty is what separates the snapshot from the photograph.” ~ Matt Hardy
- “To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting an ordinary place… I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.” ~ Elliott Erwitt
- “You don’t take a photograph, you make it.” ~ Ansel Adams
- “When people ask me what equipment I use – I tell them my eyes.” ~ Anonymous
- “I wish that all of nature’s magnificence, the emotion of the land, the living energy of place could be photographed.” ~ Annie Leibovitz
- “I never have taken a picture I’ve intended. They’re always better or worse.” ~ Diane Arbus
- “All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth.” ~ Richard Avedon
- “Today everything exists to end in a photograph.” ~ Susan Sontag
- “I think good dreaming is what leads to good photographs.” ~ Wayne Miller
- “I love the people I photograph. I mean, they’re my friends. I’ve never met most of them or I don’t know them at all, yet through my images I live with them.” ~ Bruce Gilden
- “If you want to be a better photographer, stand in front of more interesting stuff.” ~ Jim Richardson
- “When I say I want to photograph someone, what it really means is that I’d like to know them. Anyone I know I photograph.” ~ Annie Leibovitz
- “My life is shaped by the urgent need to wander and observe, and my camera is my passport.” ~ Steve McCurry
- “Look and think before opening the shutter. The heart and mind are the true lens of the camera.” ~ Yousuf Karsh
- “The camera is an excuse to be someplace you otherwise don’t belong. It gives me both a point of connection and a point of separation.” ~ Susan Meiselas
- “Most things in life are moments of pleasure and a lifetime of embarrassment; photography is a moment of embarrassment and a lifetime of pleasure.” ~ Tony Benn
- “It is more important to click with people than to click the shutter.” ~ Alfred Eisenstaedt
- “I like to photograph anyone before they know what their best angles are.” ~ Ellen Von Unwerth
- “Great photography is about depth of feeling, not depth of field.” ~ Peter Adams
- “Life is like a camera. Just focus on what’s important and capture the good times, develop from the negatives and if things don’t work out, just take another shot.” ~ Unknown
- “Only photograph what you love.” ~ Tim Walker
- “In photography there are no shadows that cannot be illuminated.” ~ August Sander
- “When I photograph, what I’m really doing is seeking answers to things.” ~ Wynn Bullock
- “Character, like a photograph, develops in darkness.” ~ Yousuf Karsh
- “It’s weird that photographers spend years or even a whole lifetime, trying to capture moments that added together, don’t even amount to a couple of hours.” ~ James Lalropui Keivom
- “Once photography enters your bloodstream, it is like a disease.” ~ Anonymous
- “Which of my photographs is my favorite? The one I’m going to take tomorrow.” ~ Imogen Cunningham