How to Celebrate World Photo Day

Take a photo of where you are now. Take a photo of the people and/or things that surround you. Take a selfie. Post these photos to your preferred social media account.

While you wait for the likes and comments to roll in, scroll through your photo backlog. How many do you have? A thousand? More? Give the screen whirl and stop at a random moment from your past.

Find a group of pictures you don’t recall taking. They’ll begin with a series of landscapes – a blur of trees from a car window, an empty road stretching to the horizon, tall grass along a shoreline.

The landscapes will give way to a lighthouse. There are no lighthouses within a thousand of miles of where you live now. Where were these photos taken? When?

Feel just on the verge of remembering something important and meaningful, but get distracted by a push notification. Someone has left a comment on your selfie. “Lighthouse_k33p3r?” You’re not familiar with that username.

Tap the notification to view the post. The app won’t open. Instead, your screen will turn black and a shiny red button will appear at its center.

The home button won’t work. Swiping left, right, or up will accomplish nothing. You won’t even be able to shut down your phone.

That’s fine. You’ve always enjoyed buttons, particularly the pressing them part. And, a red button? Well, that’s the best kind of button there is.

Press the button.

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Narrative Day

This is our sixth Narrative Day – a post featuring a light narrative that threads through other national days.

Previous entries, in order, were:

• National Fresh Breath Day
• World Lighthouse Day
• National Book Lovers Day
• National Garage Sale Day
• National Creamsicle Day

Narrative Days will be intermittently sprinkled throughout the month. We hope you’ll stay tuned to see what happens next.

Links & Learning

• A Brief History of Photography and the Camera – The Spruce
• Kodak and the Rise of Amateur Photography – The Metropolitan Museum of Art
• 20 First Photos from the History of Photography – PetaPixel
• Art at Arm’s Length: A History of the Selfie – Vulture

Video

A moving picture about still pictures.

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