World Photography Day: Go clickety-click!

Ritu Singh

“Taking pictures is savoring life intensely, every hundredth of a second.”- Marc Riboud What makes a photograph so special? Well, the answer might be pretty simple , but a person addicted to photography can spend his/her whole lifetime answering it! A photo is something which has the ability to extract and bring out myriad emotions hidden beneath you. How lovely it is to capture life`s fleeting moments and share them with others and re-live that moment again and again! August 19th marks World Photography Day which is all about celebrating the gift and ability we have to communicate through this powerful visual medium. It’s an art which has revolutionised the way we see and perceive the world .Can you imagine a world without cameras now? No? Right! The mere thought is enough to scare us. Why we love photography? Photography gives us a different perspective of the world. We start to observe how much beauty is all around us. Once we start noticing intricate details and the common everyday things, we tend to derive happiness from it. Even a bland and common sight transforms into something magical when captured with the right emotion. Once you are behind the lens, the image captured becomes more than just a mere sight. It takes on different dimensions and transforms into something unique. Each picture tells a story and all stories are beautiful. It lets us explore various aesthetic possibilities offered by colour, light, form and shape. Photography lets you express yourself-your opinions, interests and beliefs. How you express yourself is by choosing what you wish to capture and how you interpret it. Every person should have some creative outlet and no other art can be as fun and fulfilling as Photography. So, next time anyone questions you about your creative skills, just pick up your camera and let your senses take over. Yes, creativity can be that simple! And now with a plethora of options and various technological advancements, you can explore a multitude of ways to capture and represent reality or rather bend it too. The origin of World Photography Day : Now let’s go back into time and know what led to this day. World Photography Day originates from the Daguerreotype, a photographic process developed by Joseph Nicèphore Nièpce and Louis Daguerre. On January 9, 1839, The French Academy of Sciences announced the daguerreotype process. On August 19, 1839 , the French government announced this invention as a gift "Free to the World". Another great invention in the form of the Calotype was awaiting the year 1839.William Fox Talbot invented this photographic process and together, the invention of both the Daguerreotype and Calotype mark 1839 as the year that photography was invented. Now after 170 years, we commemorate August 19th as a day which gave Humanity such a rare gift. Founding of the World Photography Day A passionate Australian photographer Korske Ara in 2009 launched the World Photography Day Project. On 19 August 2010, the first global online gallery of World Photography Day was hosted. The day is celebrated in order to unite global as well as local communities of the photographers. So, on this World Photography Day don’t worry if you are a professional or an amateur, just grab a camera and go clickety click.