Long before selfies, photo albums, and camera phones, people wondered if there was a way to capture the world exactly as it looked. Artists had painted portraits and landscapes for centuries, but these were interpretations, not exact copies. The dream of “drawing with light” gave birth to photography, and its story is one of curiosity, science, and imagination.The earliest roots of photography stretch back over two thousand years. Ancient Chinese philosophers and Greek thinkers like Aristotle described a curious trick of light: if a small hole was made in a dark room, the scene outside would appear, upside down, on the wall opposite the hole. This simple principle, later called the camera obscura (Latin for “dark chamber”), was used by artists in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance to trace outlines for accurate drawings. Yet, for all its usefulness, the image vanished the moment the light faded. The real challenge was to find a way to make the picture permanent.That breakthrough came in the 1800s, when inventors began experimenting with chemicals that reacted to light. In 1826, a Frenchman named Joseph Nicéphore Niépce succeeded in capturing the first known permanent photograph. He placed a plate coated with bitumen, a type of chemical, inside a camera obscura and left it exposed for several hours. The result was a faint image of the rooftops outside his window. By today’s standards, it was blurry and unclear, but it was a revolutionary moment: the world had been frozen in time by light alone.Niépce’s work inspired others, including his partner Louis Daguerre. Daguerre improved the process and, in 1839, introduced the daguerreotype, a method that produced sharp, detailed pictures on a silver-coated plate. People lined up to have their portraits taken, fascinated by the lifelike quality of these images. For the first time, families could preserve the faces of loved ones, and ordinary people could see themselves in a way once reserved for paintings of kings and queens. Around the same time, in England, William Henry Fox Talbot developed the calotype, a technique that used paper negatives to produce multiple copies of a photograph. This idea of making reproducible images would shape photography’s future.As decades passed, cameras became more practical. In the late 1800s, George Eastman created roll film and introduced the Kodak camera with the slogan, “You press the button, we do the rest.” Suddenly, photography was no longer limited to scientists and professionals. Anyone could take snapshots of everyday life—birthdays, holidays, or just a walk in the park—and send the film to be developed. Photo albums began to fill with personal histories, and photography became a way of remembering moments big and small.The 20th century saw photography evolve at lightning speed. Black and white gave way to colour, thanks to inventors like the Lumière brothers, who created early colour processes. War photographers carried cameras to battlefields, showing the world the harsh realities of conflict. Photojournalism became a powerful tool, capturing events as they happened and shaping public opinion. Meanwhile, artists pushed photography beyond documentation, experimenting with shadows, reflections, and abstract patterns to turn photographs into works of art.By the mid-1900s, photography had become part of everyday culture. The Polaroid camera allowed people to take a picture and hold the print in their hand just minutes later. Magazines and newspapers relied heavily on photographs to tell stories. Advertising, fashion, and cinema all embraced photography’s power to influence how people saw the world. At the same time, scientists used cameras to explore the invisible—photographing stars in space, cells under a microscope, or athletes in motion.Then came the digital revolution. In the 1970s and 80s, engineers developed electronic sensors that could record light as digital data. By the 1990s, digital cameras began replacing film cameras. Pictures could now be stored on memory cards, viewed instantly on screens, and shared without printing. Soon, mobile phones included cameras, and photography leapt into everyone’s pocket. The rise of the smartphone turned billions of people into photographers. Apps and filters made it possible to edit, enhance, and share photos instantly with the world.Today, photography is everywhere. Satellites orbiting Earth take images of entire continents, while tiny cameras on drones capture sweeping views of cities and landscapes. Astronomers photograph galaxies millions of light years away, while doctors use imaging to look inside the human body without surgery. For teenagers, photography is often about expression—whether through creative Instagram posts, TikTok clips, or documenting friendships and school life. Despite all its changes, the heart of photography remains the same: it is about freezing a moment in time..The first photograph took hours to captureJoseph Nicéphore Niépce’s 1826 image, View from the Window at Le Gras, needed eight hours of sunlight to appear. .The first person in a photo was unintentionalIn 1838, a man having his shoes polished appeared in Louis Daguerre’s street scene of Paris..Old portraits rarely showed smilesEarly cameras needed long exposure times, so people had to sit still without moving their faces..Colour photography began in the 19th centuryThe first colour photograph was made in 1861 using red, green, and blue filters..Photography means drawing with lightThe word comes from the Greek words “photos” (light) and “graphé” (drawing)..Space missions carried special camerasAstronauts on Apollo missions used modified Hasselblad cameras to capture Moon images..The first digital photo was taken in 1957It was created 20 years before the digital camera, by scanning a picture of a baby onto a computer..The oldest known colour photo still existsJames Clerk Maxwell’s 1861 colour ribbon photo is preserved at the University of Cambridge..The first aerial photos came from pigeonsIn 1908, German apothecary Julius Neubronner strapped tiny cameras to pigeons to capture landscapes..World’s first selfie dates back to 1839American pioneer Robert Cornelius took a self-portrait that required him to sit still for over a minute..Some drones can spot details smaller than a coinHigh-end drones now carry cameras with resolutions so sharp they can capture details as small as a coin from hundreds of metres in the air..Polaroid cameras changed photographyInvented in 1948, they allowed people to watch photos develop in minutes.
