World Photography Day 2025
"My Favorite Photo" and the Stories Behind Every Frame
Imagine, Louis Daguerre is in his poorly lit workshop back in 1839, working on a silver-coated copper plate with extreme caution so that it is ready to make the first picture of the world by his revolutionary method. No way, he isn’t aware that his process will be the reason for a global celebration nearly 200 years later called World Photography Day 2025, with the theme “My Favorite Photo.”
However, the tale that Daguerre told was very different, setting the tone for it to be fitted in the arts rather than the sciences. Louis, who was born in the middle of the French Revolution, found peace in sketching, although his homeland was ripping itself apart. When political turmoil tends to bring out the creative side of people, it was not different in the case of Daguerre. At the age of 13, he was made the apprentice of an architect and there he learned the essentials of building and designing, which were the two areas that he later used to prove his skills in the field of photography.
His travels brought him to Paris, where he made enormous and semi-transparent artworks called dioramas. The gigantic presentations tried to mesmerize the spectators with their deceitful aspect of movement and changing light. But the triumph turned out to be short-lived. The expensive dioramas had driven Daguerre to the verge of bankruptcy, which made him frustrated and longing for a new path in life.
This is the moment when luck acted infuriated on his side and put in his path Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, who is famous for taking the first non-perishable photograph in the world in 1825. Niépce passed away in 1833, leaving to Daguerre not only the apparatus but the challenge as well. Most of the time, they were used for experiments between chemicals and silver plates was found at last to have a successful combination, and the daguerreotype process was launched.
The Gift That Changed Everything
The French government went out on a limb and made a very daring announcement on August 19, 1839. They availed themselves of Daguerre’s patent and announced it as a “gift to the world.” This ended their relationship as business partners and signaled the start of a new era, that of image-making. For the first time in history, people of common means were able to fix and keep their memories eternally.
The daguerreotype method made photos with amazing clarity on silvered copper plates. Also, there was no printing of the phototype; hence the image was made from it was the one and only, and so the image turned out to be very valuable. That contrasts with the current digital age in which we generally mindlessly snap hundreds of photos in a row. One daguerreotype required a lot of meticulous consideration, and the watcher had to be very patient and master the art.
Fundamentally, Sir John Herschel, a British scientist, coined the expression “photography” in 1839 to define the newly discovered process, naming it after the Greek words phōtós (light) and graphê (drawing or writing). The term “drawing with light” was originally a very apt metaphor for the new medium, one that has stayed with us to this day.
From Chemical Plates to Digital Stories
Take the situation to 2010, and professional photographer Korske Ara will tell you that photography has an extraordinary past that is worth remembering. He formed World Photography Day to homage the day of the historic patent and to motivate people to shoot photos that they would find meaningful. It was a simple, yet impactful idea of his: to make everyone shoot pictures that would narrate their own stories.
The festival, however, is far more widely international now compared to how it used to be in those days, with more people coming, using it as a part of their social media strategy, or hosting community activities among other things. Saying that there are more people than ever before taking part in the event would be an understatement. One of the most popular themes that has run through all the celebrations up to now has been “My Favorite Photo,” which challenges us to remember that perfection of an image technically isn’t at the forefront, rather emotional bond matters most.
The Power Behind "My Favorite Photo"
What really makes a photo one-of-a-kind is not always the camera or the lighting. It may be just a split second when a kid is caught taking his first steps on a phone. Or it could be a carefully arranged nature shot that captured the photographer’s mood after hours of waiting. The 2025 theme expresses this very idea: a photographer of any skill level – a weekend guy or a professional – will always have one single picture, which means nothing less than the world to them.
On World Photography Week (August 12-26), participants are given the task of sharing more than one photo with a caption “World Photography Week” showing their photos’ importance. However, the very essence of the event is still the 19th of August when photographers from all over the globe will publish their best picture with the corresponding story using both #WorldPhotographyDay and #WorldPhotographyDay2025 hashtags.
Photography Revolutionized the Culture
The scope of photography is much larger than just the collection of memories. It has totally changed the way we see the earth, people have called “Our world” before. For example, war photography put the pictures of conflicts happening far away right into the living rooms of people, which is the reason for the rise of the social movements and authorizations’ change. Besides that, portrait photography helped art to be more accessible to everyone, as families with basic financial resources began to commission paintings that until then were only for the wealthy ones.
On the other hand, street photography helped to visualize the daily lives of the people living in the cities, meanwhile landscape photography gave the perfect natural scenario for the tree and other environmental initiatives. Initially, documentary photography revealed social injustices by giving the oppressors no platform to speak and providing the oppressed with a voice, helping create enduring transformations.
Think of all the photographs that have become the shared memories of us all: the navy officer kissing a nurse in Times Square, the little girl who ran away from the fiery napalm in Vietnam, the only protester standing in front of the tanks in Tiananmen Square. These moments were captured, yet they went beyond the immediate and became mementos of the human struggle and compassion.
Join the Global Celebration
World Photography Day 2025 will be an event with endless possibilities to express yourself creatively and to get in touch with other people. Even the emptiest streets of your neighborhood can be turned into a photo walk if you get eyes to see under the surface and find hidden gems of the area you think is mundane. You could also form or become a part of a local group that aims at discovering different points of view of the same ancient sites.
Photography competitions allow you to present your creative ideas to more people. A variety of schools, local communities, and online platforms run such contests during World Photography Week, where artists can gain recognition and sometimes get rewarded for their excellent work.
Along with social media campaigns that use official hashtags, your pictures can be linked to the whole world community of photography fans. Here is what you can do: don’t only show your pictures; let others know what is behind the pictures—the time when you looked at that particular scene, the hurdles you passed through, or the feeling that the picture brings out.
The workshops and other educational events during World Photography Week are an excellent source of learning for both beginners and experienced photographers. Besides the camera stores, the community centers, and the photography clubs provide various classes catering to different skills and techniques.
Moreover, if you really want to have deep engagement with the matter, you may think about developing a poster or a slogan campaign that highlights the importance of photography in your community. Most likely, schools would welcome photography-oriented projects that deal with the historical and cultural aspects of the medium.
The Beige Advantage in Visual Storytelling
Beige Corporation is aware that photography is not just taking pictures—it is establishing relationships. We have seen the impact of visuals on making content creation more accessible to the masses and, thus, storytelling, on a large scale, every time we have worked as a company since we set up in L.A. in 2017.
Beige Productions is the team that partners with artists, brands, and businesses to photograph the moments that matter. We have been witness to the power of photography in the fulfillment of the very human desire for connection that Daguerre first brought about with the invention of the daguerreotype back in 1839, through various means such as capturing corporate events, creating branded content, or archiving personal milestones.
By conducting a full range of creative service activities, we provide photographers and content creators with easily available environments in which these purposes become evident. Through everything from production spaces to collaborative networks, we are setting up the platform for digital-age visual storytelling to flourish.
Capturing Tomorrow's History Today
Moving towards World Photography Day 2025, it is great to understand that you are in a process the tradition of which takes almost 200 years. Every photo you take—it could be your morning coffee, a family gathering, or a sunset of overwhelming beauty—makes a contribution to the visual record of mankind.
Under the theme of “My Favorite Photo,” photography’s power gets the acknowledgment that is not achieved by the technical side but by personal meaning. The image of your grandmother’s laugh might be of very poor quality and not be accepted in any contest, but still, it creates a memory that cannot be replaced. The image taken on your first day at a new job is the documentation of an important life process. The photo of the sunset from your hiking trip not only shows the view but also your personal connection with nature.
The art of photography changed through time—from the silver plates of Daguerre to the digital sensors, from the darkrooms to the smartphones, and from the local portraits to the global social media campaigns. However, it still is the same in essence that it had been all along: the fundamental purpose of capturing light, saving time, and telling stories that people understand are the very reasons behind photography.
This August 19th, make the photograph that really means something to you. Show it to everyone. Be part of the ongoing discussion that started with a Frenchman’s “gift to the world” and keeps going with every shutter release. Your favorite photo could be the one that makes another person see the world—and photography—in a brand-new way.