The Chronicle

by Mr. Prithwiraj Pal Assistant Professor, HoD, Department of Media Science, TISL 19 August — World Photography Day — A little story about a very big thing: Today is World Photography Day and most of us know that. Many of us also know why 19 August is celebrated as World Photography Day. Since morning, we have been wishing each other, sharing photographs, posting memories and talking about photography. The usual story goes back to 1839, when the French government made the Daguerreotype process, developed by Louis Daguerre, freely available to the world on 19 August. It was a remarkable moment—the beginning of a new way of capturing and preserving a moment. But somehow, I feel 1839 deserves to be remembered for a little more than that. There were two other interesting things that happened around photography that year. First — the word “Photography” itself. The word comes from two Greek words: phōs, meaning light, and graphé, meaning drawing or representation.  So, photography litera...