Photography has fascinated me for as long as I can remember. I even exhibited a few photos during my high school days, proud to show the world through my own lens. The summer after my freshman year at the University of Rochester, I came across an article on holography in the Time-Life Library of Photography.
Captivated, I returned to school and immediately signed up for my first optics class. My newly minted professor, teaching his very first class, was Duncan Moore, who would later become 1996 Optica President. Back then, just about everyone taking sophomore geometrical optics was either a photography buff or a telescope aficionado, excited by curiosity and the joy of capturing light.
Next year marks the 200th anniversary of the first photograph, View from the Window at Le Gras. Amazingly, 90% of all photos taken during the ensuing two centuries have been captured in just the past 15 years. Globally, we take over 5 billion photos each day, with smartphones accounting for the vast majority of them. The best photos are still to be savored of course, and so I’m delighted that this issue features the winners of the OPN Photo Contest, which show us how light, science and imagination combine to reveal beauty in unexpected ways.
This year also marks the golden anniversary of OPN. Launched as Optics News in February 1975, the magazine was rebranded as Optics & Photonics News in 1990. The April 2025 issue’s retrospective on 50 years of OPN covers illustrates not only how far we have come but the incredibly broad range of topics that we have explored. Along the way, OPN has added in-depth features and special issues, bringing more international voices into our pages and building a strong digital footprint through the website and newsletters. Today, the magazine serves a far more diverse community across academia, industry and government, while continuing to deliver concise, authoritative introductions to emerging fields. As one colleague aptly put it, “If you want to learn about a new field, start with OPN.”
This has been a most momentous year in other ways too. In addition to OPN’s 50th anniversary, Optica celebrated the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology with educational and outreach activities that brought our global community together. I am encouraged by the energy and creativity that define our members and constantly inspired by the remarkable progress demonstrated by multiple photonics ventures pushing the boundaries of technology and innovation.
As I reflect on my year as Optica President, I am reminded of some of the themes that resonated through this year’s Global Photonics Economic Forum: making connections, finding ways to better cooperate and practicing resilience. My wish for our community as the new year dawns is that we continue to find ways to support each other and share with everyone who will listen the wonder and importance of optics and photonics.
Here’s to another year of light, discovery and connection.
—Jim Kafka,
Optica President
