Quiz of the Day
World Photography Day
Wednesday, 19 August 2026
August 19, 1839 — the day photography was announced to the world. Explore the history, science, and iconic images that changed how we see ourselves
1. World Photography Day commemorates the announcement of which photographic process in 1839?
- Heliograph
- Calotype
- Daguerreotype
- Tintype
The daguerreotype process — announced by the French government on August 19, 1839 — produced the first practical photographs on silver-coated copper plates. Its inventor, Louis Daguerre, received a lifetime pension from France in exchange for making the process freely available to the world. When the announcement came, it caused a worldwide sensation — optical shops immediately sold out of supplies for people to try it themselves.
2. Who is credited with creating the world's oldest surviving photograph?
- Louis Daguerre
- George Eastman
- Joseph Nicéphore Niépce
- Henry Fox Talbot
Joseph Nicéphore Niépce created 'View from the Window at Le Gras' in 1826 or 1827 — the world's oldest surviving photograph. It required an exposure of approximately 8 hours, which is why the same building appears lit from both sides (the sun moved during exposure). The photograph is now stored at the University of Texas at Austin after being found discarded in the 1950s by photographic historians.
3. What is the 'decisive moment' in photography, a concept popularized by which photographer?
- Ansel Adams
- Henri Cartier-Bresson
- Dorothea Lange
- Robert Capa
Henri Cartier-Bresson described the 'decisive moment' as the simultaneous recognition of the significance of an event and the precise arrangement of forms that give that event its proper expression. He was a co-founder of Magnum Photos and pioneered photojournalism. He worked almost exclusively with a Leica 35mm camera, which was small enough to be unobtrusive — a revolution in candid photography.
4. What is the 'Pale Blue Dot,' and who requested that it be photographed?
- A photograph of Earth from the Moon, taken by Apollo astronauts
- A telescope image of a distant exoplanet, requested by NASA
- A satellite image of the Arctic, commissioned by environmentalists
- Earth photographed from 6 billion kilometers away, requested by Carl Sagan
On February 14, 1990, Carl Sagan persuaded NASA to turn the Voyager 1 spacecraft around to photograph Earth from 6 billion kilometers away. Earth appears as a tiny fraction of a pixel — a 'pale blue dot' in a beam of scattered sunlight. Sagan's accompanying essay ('on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam') became one of the most famous reflections on humanity's place in the cosmos.
5. Dorothea Lange's 'Migrant Mother' photograph (1936) depicted whom during what historical event?
- An Appalachian woman during the 1920s coal strikes
- A WWII refugee in Europe
- Florence Owens Thompson, a pea-picker during the Great Depression
- A dust bowl farmer from Kansas
Dorothea Lange photographed Florence Owens Thompson at a migrant workers' camp in Nipomo, California in March 1936. Thompson was 32 years old with seven children, having sold the tires from her car for food. The photograph became the defining image of the Great Depression. Lange gave the location to relief authorities who sent 20,000 pounds of food to the camp. Thompson herself never received any compensation or credit for decades.
6. What does ISO measure in photography?
- The shutter speed in fractions of a second
- The sensor or film's sensitivity to light
- The focal length of a lens
- The lens aperture opening size
ISO (from the International Organization for Standardization) measures light sensitivity — higher ISO allows photography in darker conditions but introduces 'grain' or 'noise.' The exposure triangle of ISO, aperture, and shutter speed are the three fundamental controls of photographic exposure. Mastering their interplay is what separates snapshots from technically controlled photography.
7. Which photograph taken during the 1972 Vietnam War became one of the most powerful anti-war images in history?
- Napalm Girl (The Terror of War)
- Marines raising flag at Iwo Jima
- The Saigon Execution
- The Falling Soldier
Nick Ut's photo of 9-year-old Phan Thị Kim Phúc running naked and screaming after a napalm attack won the 1973 Pulitzer Prize. The image helped turn American public opinion against the Vietnam War. Kim Phúc survived severe burns and later became a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. The photo was nearly not published because of the nudity, but AP's editor famously argued: 'The horror of war overwhelms the innocence of a child.'
8. What innovation did George Eastman introduce in 1888 that made photography accessible to ordinary people?
- The Kodak camera with roll film
- Color photography
- The SLR camera
- The 35mm film format
George Eastman's Kodak camera came pre-loaded with enough roll film for 100 exposures. After taking all photos, the entire camera was mailed to Kodak, developed, and returned with prints and a new roll of film. The marketing slogan 'You press the button, we do the rest' democratized photography overnight. Eastman's innovations made photography available to the masses for the first time in history.
9. What is the 'rule of thirds' in photography composition?
- Using three subjects in every photograph
- Keeping one-third of the image in shadow
- Using three different lighting sources
- Dividing the frame into nine equal parts and placing subjects on the intersections
The rule of thirds suggests placing subjects and horizon lines on the imaginary grid lines that divide an image into nine equal rectangles, rather than centered. This creates tension and energy that centered compositions lack. Interestingly, humans are neurologically drawn to off-center compositions — eye-tracking studies show we naturally scan images toward the rule-of-thirds points rather than the center.
10. Which first-of-its-kind photograph, released in April 2019, was produced by the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration?
- First photograph of a black hole
- First photograph of another solar system
- First image of a neutron star collision
- First photo from Mars orbit
The first image of a black hole — M87*, a supermassive black hole 55 million light-years away — was captured by the Event Horizon Telescope in April 2019. The image was constructed by synchronizing radio telescopes across the globe to create an Earth-sized virtual telescope. Dr. Katie Bouman, a computer scientist who developed the algorithms that made the image possible, became famous for her joyful reaction upon seeing the first image.
11. What is the 'golden hour' in photography?
- The period shortly after sunrise or before sunset when light is warm and soft
- The optimal time for indoor studio photography
- A technique using golden-colored filters
- The hour when photos always come out perfectly
The golden hour (also called the 'magic hour' by cinematographers) occurs roughly one hour after sunrise and one hour before sunset. At these times, the sun is low on the horizon so light travels through more atmosphere, scattering short blue wavelengths and leaving long warm orange-red wavelengths. The result is softer, warmer, more flattering light with longer dramatic shadows — why professional photographers often wake before dawn.
12. How many photos are taken worldwide each year as of the 2020s?
- 1.4 trillion
- 1–2 billion
- 10–20 billion
- 100–200 billion
Humanity now takes approximately 1.4 trillion photographs per year — the vast majority with smartphones. More photos are taken every two minutes now than in the entire 19th century. This explosion of image-making has transformed how we remember, communicate, and experience events. Instagram alone hosts over 40 billion photos, with 100 million new photos uploaded every single day.
13. What is 'bokeh' in photography?
- A type of infrared photography filter
- A technique for long-exposure night photography
- The aesthetic quality of the out-of-focus areas in a photograph
- A Japanese camera brand
Bokeh (from Japanese 'boke,' meaning blur or haze) refers to the pleasing quality of out-of-focus areas created by a shallow depth of field. The characteristic circular or polygonal shapes of bokeh are determined by the lens's aperture blades. Lens manufacturers spend enormous effort optimizing bokeh quality — and photographers often choose lenses primarily for their distinctive bokeh character.
14. Alfred Stieglitz is considered the father of modern art photography. What was his famous gallery that legitimized photography as fine art?
- Gallery 291
- Photo-Secession Gallery
- 291 Fifth Avenue
- The Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession
Alfred Stieglitz opened 'The Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession' — later simply called '291' — in New York in 1905. It was the first gallery in America to exhibit photography alongside painting and sculpture as equal fine arts. Stieglitz also showed Cézanne, Matisse, and Picasso in America for the first time, and he photographed his wife Georgia O'Keeffe in over 300 portraits across her body, hands, and face.
15. What was the first photograph taken from space?
- Taken by Apollo 8 in 1968
- Taken by Sputnik satellite in 1957
- Taken by V-2 rocket in 1946
- Taken by Yuri Gagarin in 1961
The first photograph of Earth from space was taken on October 24, 1946, by a 35mm motion picture camera mounted on a captured German V-2 rocket launched from White Sands, New Mexico. It reached 105 km altitude — well above the Kármán line (100 km) defining space. The camera survived impact in the desert by being enclosed in a steel cassette. The grainy black-and-white image showed Earth's curvature for the first time.