World Photography Day 2027

What is World Photography Day?

World Photography Day 2027 is Thursday 19 August 2027. World Photography Day is always 19 August, the date in 1839 when the French government announced the daguerreotype process as a gift free to the world, and it has been marked internationally since 2010.

World Photography Day 2026 was on Wednesday 19 August 2026. The next World Photography Day is on Thursday 19 August 2027.

World Photography Day celebrates the art, craft, science and history of photography. The date commemorates 19 August 1839, when the French Academy of Sciences presented the daguerreotype, the first practical photographic process, developed by Louis Daguerre and Nicephore Niepce, and the French government declared it free for anyone in the world to use. The first global online gallery for the day was organised by Australian photographer Korske Ara in 2010, and the event has since been adopted by photographers, camera brands, galleries and museums worldwide.

The day is informal rather than run by a single official body, but institutions such as the Royal Photographic Society, founded in 1853, and the V&A Photography Centre in London use it to highlight collections, competitions and education. Its appeal is universal: almost everyone now carries a camera, and an estimated 1.9 trillion photographs are taken every year, the vast majority on smartphones.

Why it matters for marketers and organisations

World Photography Day is a natural moment for camera and smartphone brands, printing and photo book services, galleries, tourism boards, schools and charities that rely on visual storytelling. It is one of the easiest days of the year to build user generated content around, because audiences enjoy sharing their own images. Employers and internal comms teams use it for staff photo competitions and to refresh imagery of their workplace. The angle is participation: ask people to take and share a picture, give them a theme, and showcase the results.

Ideas: how to mark World Photography Day

• Run a themed photo competition for customers or staff with entries collected on a hashtag over one week.
• Host a lunchtime workshop on smartphone photography basics such as light, composition and editing.
• Share a then and now feature using archive photographs of your town, building or organisation.
• Partner with a local gallery or camera club on an exhibition or photo walk.
• Commission a documentary photographer to capture a day in the life of your service or charity.
• Publish a short history of photography from the daguerreotype to computational cameras.
• Offer a discount on prints, photo books or framing for the week.
• Highlight the work of photographers from under represented communities in your sector.

Key facts

• The daguerreotype process was announced publicly by the French Academy of Sciences on 19 August 1839.
• The oldest surviving photograph, View from the Window at Le Gras by Nicephore Niepce, was made in about 1826.
• The Royal Photographic Society was founded in London in 1853.
• Kodak’s Brownie camera, launched in 1900 for one dollar, brought photography to the mass market.
• The first digital camera prototype was built at Kodak by Steven Sasson in 1975.
• The first World Photography Day online gallery was held on 19 August 2010.