Photography is a fascinating thing to study. If you think about it, photography has only been possible for a tiny fraction of the time that human beings have been on earth. In fact, it wasn’t until about 1837 that photography first came to America. However, the concept of photography has existed since about the 5th century. Experts believe that a scientist in Iraq invented a contraption called the camera obscure in the 11th century, although his invention didn’t capture images. Instead, it projected objects onto different surfaces. Photography as we know it today started in the late 1930s in France when a brilliant man did something extraordinary.
Joseph Nicéphore Niépce used a portable camera obscure for exposing to light a pewter plate that had been coated with bitumen. The image he produced was the first recorded image that lasted without quickly fading away. Both the old-fashioned variety of photography and the new digital version can capture and preserve the important times of our life, and photography can also be used to mess with our heads in a totally fun way. You can use simple tricks like shadow and light to create intricately detailed mind-bending illusions that will make even the most discerning skeptics head spin.
In the photo below, you can see an image that appears to be of a room full of girls. But how many girls are really in the photo? That’s the challenge. Only about 65 percent of the people who look at this image will get the answer correct, but it’s not as simple as it seems. Look at it carefully and see if you have a sharp enough mind to figure it out.
