Photography is an important aspect of todays society, with phones, websites and apps all geared around sharing content and uploading experiences.
Here’s 16 interesting facts about photography
- The first photograph was taken in 1826 by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce. It was a black and white image of a view from his window.
- The word “photography” comes from Greek roots meaning “drawing with light.”
- The world’s most expensive photograph ever sold is “Rhein II” by Andreas Gursky, which was sold for $4.3 million at an auction in 2011.
- The first digital camera was invented in 1975 by Steven Sasson, an engineer at Kodak.
- The most photographed landmark in the world is the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France.
- The first color photograph was taken in 1861 by physicist James Clerk Maxwell.
- The “selfie” was officially named the word of the year by Oxford Dictionaries in 2013.
- It is estimated that more than 1.4 trillion photos were taken in the year 2020 alone.
- The term “pixel” comes from the words “picture” and “element,” and refers to the smallest unit of a digital image.
- The term “megapixel” was first used in 1984 by NASA scientist Dr. Harold Eugene Edgerton.
- The most viewed photo on Flickr, as of 2023, is a picture of a grey squirrel taken by photographer Dennis S. Hurd. It has been viewed over 94 million times.
- The first nude photo dates back to 1842
- The world’s first permanent photograph was also taken by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce. It was a heliograph made by exposing an asphalt-coated plate to light for eight hours.
- The first commercial camera was called the Kodak and was invented by George Eastman in 1888. It was sold with the slogan “You press the button, we do the rest.”
- The first photograph of a human being was taken in 1838 by Louis Daguerre. The exposure time was over 10 minutes, so the man in the photo had to stand still for that entire time.
- The most viewed photograph on the internet is the “Bliss” wallpaper that comes with Windows XP.
