Can one person make a difference? Can one person meaningfully improve photography, all by him or herself? Yes, is the answer I think you’ll say if you meet Korske Ara.
In 2009, Ara, a newly minted professional photographer, had a dream of making a day to celebrate photography in the entire world — World Photo Day. He decided that the first one would be in the coming year, on August 19, 2010. (Why that day? More on that below.)
From that inspiring start, World Photo Day began, and has grown in audience exponentially. Just take a look at hashtag #worldphotoday on Instagram to see the 134,000 posts tagged that way. In fact, according to World Photo Day’s website, by 2016, World Photo Day had reached a global social audience of 500 million people!
So why August 19th? Well, historians argue on the details of when photography began, but it seems that they pretty much all agree that on August 19th, 1839 the French government acquired the right to the patent for the daguerreotype process. And on that very same day they made the process available as a “gift to the world” with no royalty or other fees required. What this did was make photography available to anyone who would acquire the materials and learn the process, launching the photography industry.
The daguerreotype process (illustrated in the picture below) basically consisted of exposing an image on a silver surface that had previously been made light-sensitive in a chemical process using halogen fumes. After undergoing a developing process using fumes from heated mercury, the image was “fixed,” or the light sensitivity of the original silver surface removed, by washing away any of the still-sensitive silver with a sodium thiosulfate solution.
Aren’t you happy that you don’t have to do all that to make a photo these days? Well then, you certainly should be celebrating World Photography Day.
Do you have a dream of making a difference? To photography or anything else? Please let us know in the comments. Who knows, your comment below might be your first step for a world-changing project!
Feature image via Shutterstock
