Imagine a world without photographs. There's so much we might never have "seen". Thanks to the invention and evolution of the camera, we have pieces of the past frozen in time. We are able to "experience" places we've never been. And we can share parts of our lives with strangers, in an instant.
Nowadays, almost anyone can be a photographer. An amateur one anyway. And you don't even need to carry a camera or professional equipment. A mobile phone with photographic capabilities will do just fine. But it wasn't always that way.