World Photography Week
Each year, World Photography Week celebrates the significant role photography plays in art, science and society.
For World Photography Week, we cover everything from the earliest demonstrations of high-speed cameras to observations of deep space, drawing inspiration from nature to enhance imaging and much more.
In this gallery, you can explore a variety of images contributed by photographers to Optica and learn about the history of optics in this field.
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Edwin Land was the first to develop inexpensive filters capable of polarizing light.
21st Annual Photo Contest
Earth in Far-UV
Plant 9 for our Spätlese
Raindrop on a leaf
Recent advances in lensless imaging
A Compact, Efficient 3D Camera System Inspired by Nature
Iridescence in nature
Katharine Blodgett demonstrating surface chemistry
Follow the evolution of polarization, beginning with the development of the first polarized glasses in 1849 to Polaroid’s breakthrough technology and advancements in 3D imaging.
Sand Dunes on Mars
Pinhole imaging reimagined
Researchers created a high-quality wide-angle image using an array of metalenses just a fraction larger and thicker than a postage stamp.
Luminous glass tower
IR Filter on Artificial Tears
Birefringence of Glass-Metal Seal
Deep camera obscura: an image restoration pipeline for pinhole photography
A Star Like No Other
Glass (Microscope Slide)
A 19th-century technique leveraged interference to create vibrant, stable color pictures—but never hit the mainstream.
Zen of cloud iridescence
Reconstructed bunny
Wine glass caustics
Laser-induced damage
Noctilucent
