When Is World Photography Day? Everything You Need to Know

World Photography Day is celebrated every year and it’s coming soon, on August 19. It’s a day for photographers and photography lovers around the world to celebrate the art, history, and impact of photography.

And if you’re wondering why August 19 was chosen, there’s a rather good reason: it’s the date on which the daguerreotype process was officially announced to the world in 1839.

Why is World Photography Day on August 19?

The date goes back to one of the most important moments in photographic history. On August 19, 1839, the French government officially announced the details of the daguerreotype, a photographic process developed by Louis Daguerre with important earlier work by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce. The French government made the process available to the public, effectively giving photography to the world.

There had already been photographic experiments before this, including Niépce’s early photographs in the 1820s. But the 1839 announcement was a major turning point because the daguerreotype provided a practical way of producing detailed permanent photographs.

So August 19 isn’t just an arbitrary date picked for a social media hashtag. It marks a genuine milestone in the history of photography.

What is World Photography Day?

World Photography Day is an opportunity to celebrate photography in all its forms. That includes professional photographers, hobbyists, photojournalists, documentary photographers, artists, scientists, and anyone who enjoys taking pictures.

Photography has become such a normal part of everyday life that it’s easy to forget just how extraordinary the technology actually is. We can now take a photograph, edit it, send it around the world, and have thousands of people see it within seconds.

The first photographers needed hours to produce a single image. We complain when our phone takes three seconds to open the camera. Progress, eh?

How can you celebrate World Photography Day?

There aren’t any official rules for celebrating World Photography Day, which is probably appropriate for photography. You could spend the day taking photographs, revisit some of your favourite images, learn about photographic history, visit a gallery, experiment with a technique you’ve never tried before, or simply take your camera somewhere you’ve never photographed.

It’s also a good excuse to dig through the photographs sitting on your hard drive and actually do something with them. You know the ones. The 4,000 photographs you’ve been meaning to edit since 2019.

Why is photography worth celebrating?

Photography isn’t just about making pretty pictures. Photographs document wars, political movements, scientific discoveries, family histories, cultural changes, and everyday life. They can expose injustice, preserve memories, communicate ideas, and show us places and people we might otherwise never encounter.

And, of course, photography can also be about taking a ridiculous picture of your cat. Both are perfectly valid uses of a camera.

Is there a World Photography Day competition?

There isn’t one single official World Photography Day competition or organisation that controls the event. Many photography websites, organisations, galleries, camera manufacturers, and individual photographers mark the day with exhibitions, competitions, events, and social media campaigns.

If you’re a photographer, it’s also a good opportunity to share your work and discover what other photographers around the world are creating. Just don’t spend the entire day scrolling through Instagram instead of taking photographs. That’s not really celebrating photography.

Key takeaways

World Photography Day takes place every year on August 19. The date commemorates the public announcement of the daguerreotype in France on August 19, 1839, one of the key moments in the development of photography.

So grab your camera, phone, film camera, instant camera, or whatever else you use to make photographs and go take some pictures. And if you happen to spend the day photographing your cat, we’re not judging.

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