WEIRD FACTS ABOUT
PHOTOGRAPHY
An American farmer, Wilson A Bentley, devoted his life to taking 5,381 photographs of snowflakes.
On September 4, 1888, George Eastman received a patent for his roll film and registered the Kodak trademark, thus bringing photography to the masses. Eastman's invention of the name Kodak reflected his fondness for the letter K, which, so he claimed, "seems a strong, incisive sort of letter". His suicide note in 1932 said simply: "My work is done. Why wait?" He was aged 77 when he died.
The word 'photograph' comes from the Greek for 'light' and 'writing'. The word was coined by astronomer Sir John Herschel in 1839.
The first photograph of the Moon was taken in New York on March 23, 1840 by John William Draper.
The first book illustrated with photographs was The Pencil Of Nature by William Fox Talbot in 1844.
Seventeen per cent of people say old photographs are the thing most likely to make them go on a diet.
In February 2007, a record was set for the most expensive photograph ever, when a picture entitled 99 Cent II Diptychon by the German photographer Andreas Gursky went under the hammer at auction for more than $3.3million.
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