“Today, we take photography for granted. Anyone can take a photograph simply by pressing a button. Yet, it was not always so simple. The invention of photography was announced in 1839, but during its first fifty years taking a photograph was a complicated and expensive business. In 1888, all this was to change following the appearance of a camera that was to revolutionize photography. Popular photography can properly be said to have started 120 years ago with the introduction of the Kodak”. – The UK National Media Museum. Photo: Two men on the deck of a ship, about 1890. (Photo by Collection of National Media Museum/Kodak Museum)

An undated archive picture shows a dog pulling a Belgian machine gun at an unknown location in northern France. A Viscount in the Armoured Cavalry Branch of the French Army left behind a collection of hundreds of glass plates taken during World War One (WWI) that have never before been published. The images, by an unknown photographer, show the daily life of soldiers in the trenches, destruction of towns and military leaders. The year 2014 marks the 100th anniversary of the start of WWI. (Photo by Collection Odette Carrez/Reuters)

View of a Spitfire from the cockpit of an He111,somewhere over Southern England 1941 – 2014. (Photo by Adam Surrey)

Italian actress Sophia Loren attends the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, 1954. (Photo by AGIP/RDA/Getty Images)

The new EVR system which allows the recording of television programmes which can then be watched at the owner's discretion. The new Teleplayer has been produced in partnership with Rank Bush Murphy Ltd and EVR and has enormous potential. 21st September 1970. (Photo by Central Press/Getty Images)

A full size working replica of the pink limousine used by Parker to chauffeur Lady Penelope in Gerry Anderson's television series “Thunderbirds”, unveiled at Woburn Abbey. United Kingdom, 27th May 1968. (Photo by Jim Gray/Keystone/Getty Images)

A British woman plays a piano designed especially for people who are confined to bed. Date: 1935. (Photo by Mary Evans Picture Library/Caters News)

“Harry Whittier Frees (1879–1953) was an American photographer who created novelty postcards and children's books based on his photographs of animals. He dressed the animals and posed them in human situations with props, often with captions; these can be seen as progenitors of modern lolcats”. – Wikipedia. Photo: “The nurse”. Photograph shows a puppy holding a kitten, 1914. (Photo by Harry Whittier Frees/Library of Congress)

P.S. All pictures are presented in high resolution. To see Hi-Res images – just TWICE click on any picture. In other words, click small picture – opens the BIG picture. Click BIG picture – opens VERY BIG picture (if available; this principle works anywhere on the site AvaxNews).