10 Candid Photography Facts

The ability to freeze an image onto paper seems like magic, but it is now part of our daily lives. Learn about the history with our fun photography facts.

10 Candid Photography Facts

1. After he invented an early version of the camera, Louis Daguerre wrote, "I have seized the fleeting light and imprisoned it! I have forced the sun to paint pictures for me!"

2. Leonardo da Vinci's is the earliest known description of the camera obscura, a large dark room in which an artist traced the reversed images reflected through a tiny hole in the wall.

3. American Civil War photographer Alex Gardner staged his famous photograph The Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter by dragging the soldier's corpse to a location he liked and placing his own rifle next to the body.

4. In 2013, the Chicago Sun-Times let go of all 28 of their full-time photographers and trained their reporters to take their own photos using iPhones instead.

5. With over 4,425 cameras in his collection, the Guiness Record holder for the most cameras owned is Dilish Parekh, who surpassed his own 2003 record to be awarded a second time.

6. One of the world's most frequently reproduced images is a photo taken during WWII by photographer Joe Rosenthal, showing U.S. troops raising a flag on Iwo Jima.

7. Samsung released the first cellphone with a built-in camera in South Korea in 2000.

8. During the Victorian Era, it was common practice to have a photograph taken of the body of a recently deceased family member, often surrounded by other members of the family.

9. NASA's public affairs department surprisingly forgot to give the first astronauts to walk on the moon instructions about taking photographs, which is why there is only one photo of Neil Armstrong taking his historic spacewalk.

10. After watching his then-wife Marilyn Monroe pose for her most famous photograph, Joe DiMaggio is reported to have gone into a jealous rage; the couple's marriage lasted only weeks after the event.