Celebrating 200 years of Photography.



It was around 1826-1827 that the French inventor Nicéphore Niépce captured what is generally considered to be the first surviving photograph, le Point de vue du Gras, a view from a window of a country estate in Saint-Loup-de-Varennes. The image was created by a process that Niépce had invented around 1822, using a camera obscura to project an image onto a pewter plate thinly coated with bitumen. The bitumen hardened in areas strongly exposed to light, but remained soluble in areas more weakly illuminated, such that it could be washed away to reveal an image. Photography has since revolutionised virtually every area of society - in science and technology, art, culture, education, family life, politics, and more. By giving us the ability to freeze moments in time, photography has fundamentally transformed how we document and share our human experience.

Throughout 2026 and 2027, a number of celebrations of the photography bicentenary will take place, including a major national initiative in France coordinated by the French Ministry of Culture. Of course, this is also an opportunity for the International Day of Light community to engage, since many partners already include photography and photography competitions in their activities. For example, events in 2026 could launch local campaigns encouraging students to explore photography, perhaps leading to exhibitions to take place for the International Day of Light in 2027. And from an educational and scientific perspective, photography reveals the universe on every scale, whether it be everyday natural phenomena or the remarkable techniques of astrophotography and microscopy. There are several possibilities of wonderful events to organise, so if you are planning something, please let us know.

Contact - International Day of Light Email: contact@lightday.org

Location: 7 Pl. de Fontenoy-Unesco, 75007 Paris, France

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