World Photography Day 2021: Celebrate The Day By Entering These Contests

The World Photography Day brings together people who share a passion to capture moments and ideas and show the world how it looks like. Like historians, photographers, too, document the present for future generations to understand the past. The day is a celebration of creativity. While the evolution of technology has made photography a lot linear with everyone holding a camera, very few images emerge out of the lenses that accurately define the moment captured. Still, it's amazing that more people have now access to photography today.

The World Photography Day originated with the invention of daguerreotype, the first commercially successful photographic process developed by Louis Daguerre. On August 19, 1839, the French Academy of Sciences announced the invention to the world. The French essayist Roland Barthes describes a photograph in his book, Camera Lucida, as a reproduction of the time that has occurred only once. "The photograph mechanically repeats what could never be repeated existentially."

How to celebrate

Photography is a powerful and purposeful medium that triggers a very intimate conversation between the photographer and the viewer. Each year, several photography competitions are organised across the world in celebration of this exciting art form.

The World Photography Organisation is aiming to raise the level of conversation around photography worldwide, through exhibitions, awards, and competitions. Established in 2007, it organises photography competitions under four verticals – for professionals, for students, the youth, and in the open category. The entries are now open.

TechRadar, the British online publication, is dedicating a whole week to celebrate the World Photography Day 2021. This celebration will conclude on August 21. Those who are passionate about photography can visit the website and read new features daily on improved techniques and how the field is shaping up. There's a plethora of interesting information.

Air New Zealand is running a contest called “eye in the sky”, through which it is seeking the most photogenic holiday photographs of their passengers. Whoever is interested to submit their holiday photos, can do it on Instagram using ‘#AirNZShareMe'. The airline will choose eight images that have been shared between August 13 and 16. The photographs will be displayed on billboards in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch.

Flickr, American image hosting and video hosting service, is also organising a multi-category photo contest to mark the occasion. It says the contest presents an opportunity to people to connect with a worldwide audience through their photographers.

Apart from these photography competitions, on August 19, those with a passion for photography can also get together and create awareness about the entire creative process, and share their ideas and nuances of photography.