National Photo Month – May 2024

History of National Photo Month

National Photo Month was first celebrated in 1987 when Congress recognized the role photos play in our society. The American Photographers Association and other organizations made National Photo Month a time of activities, festivals, photo contests, and exhibits. The celebrations have since taken on a new look in the digital age.

Photographs act like time machines. They give us a peek into our history, ancestry, and legacies from the past. Something as simple as looking at old photos can bring back a rush of memories. Historic photos, once preserved in museums and archives, capture iconic figures from history in the most important moments of their careers as well as in their unguarded moments. Photos help in creating legends out of regular people and also humanize those whom we think of as legends.

Through photographs, we can relive the most momentous achievements of humankind, such as astronaut Neil Armstrong walking on the moon. Similarly, photographs also capture the injustices of our world. Photographs of wars, prison camps, and illnesses serve as warnings to not repeat history and teach us to be kinder to fellow human beings. People do not only photograph for personal use, they photograph to remember a moment as it is — sometimes becoming the most genuine representation of a time. Photographs are perhaps one of the most reliable ways to document history, and National Photo Month is a celebration of this.