World Photography Day is celebrated on August 19. The date marks the day in 1839 when the French government acquired the patent for the daguerreotype and made it available to the public—the first photographic process capable of permanently fixing images.

Origin of the Date

Frenchman Louis Daguerre created the daguerreotype in 1837.

A happy World Photography Day to all my colleagues and friends at AFAA — Association of Amateur Photographers of the Azores, and to all photographers throughout the world, for whom I have the greatest respect and admiration.

RECORD

(A Tribute to Photographers)

I sang.

You linked
all the stars together.

You broke through treaties,
theories, histories, in every proportion.

Chemistry and emotions,
enharmony and harmony,
Renaissance streetlamps of the city,
beyond time and age.

I danced.

You whispered
sweet wine from the hillsides.

You photographed ballets
without cameras, without viewfinders, without even lenses,
assertive films,
analog and digital,
absent from the virtuality of 3D—
no to the whats and the whys.

— Raquel André Machado, in MOMENTOS LENTOS, Letras Lavadas Editions, 2023

Translated by Diniz Borges

Photos from the author