India, July 25 -- We have, for millennia, been attempting to record the moment. From glass plates to film and pixels, the journey to a world of #PicsOrItDidntHappen has been revolutionary. Take a tour.

In 1826, after years of experimentation, French landowner Nicephore Niepce took the world's first recognisable photograph: a grainy outline of rooftops and the countryside surrounding his estate.

How did he do it? Well, he invented heliography. This was a method that used light to harden and darken the surface of metal plates that had been coated with asphalt, and then placed inside a box with a small hole and a lens.

As the light hit the plate, the surface darkened to form an image. The "unexposed" parts were then washed away with oil t...