In 1826, a Frenchman named Niepce needed pictures for his business. But he was not a good artist, so he invented a very simple camera（照相机）. He put it in a window of his house and took a picture of his garden. That was the first photo. The next important date in the history of photography（摄影术）was in 1837. That year, Daguerre, another Frenchman, took a picture of his reading room. He used a new kind of camera in a different way. In his picture you could see everything very clearly, even the smallest thing. This kind of photo was called a Daguerreotype.

Soon, other people began to use Daguerre's way. Travelers brought back wonderful photos from all around the world. People took picture of famous buildings，cities and mountains.

      In about 1840, photography was developed. Then photographers could take picture of people and moving things. That was not simple. The photographer had to carry a lot of films and other machines. But this did not stop them, for example, some in the United States worked so hard. Mathew Brady was a famous American photographer. He took many pictures of great people. The pictures were unusual because they were very lifelike（栩栩如生的）.

      Photography also became a kind of art by the end of the 19th century. Some photos were not just copies of the real world. They showed ideas and feelings, like other art forms.

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What an amazing horse! Even though more than a thousand years have passed, we can still feel the power within its burning eyes, orderly teeth and kicking hooves. Night-Shining White, now kept in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, is regarded as one of the most important horse paintings in the history of Chinese art. Its artist, Han Gan, is known for his drawing skills. 

Born into a poor family in the early Tang Dynasty, the young Han Gan had to help support his family by working in a local wine shop. His talent(才能) in art was discovered by accident when he was sent to the poet Wang Wei's house to co llect payment for some wine. While waiting at the gate, Han Gan used a stick(木棍) to draw pictures on the ground and was seen by the poet. Wang Wei decided to help the young man to study painting. Because of Han's natural talent and years of hard work, he was finally chosen to work for Emperor Xuanzong. 

The Tang emperors were crazy about horses. At that time, the most common way to study horse painting was to copy the works of other painters. Han Gan's way, however, was different — he studied the animal itself. He often visited the royal stables(马厩) and even lived with the stable workers for some time. The horses, whether resting or moving, offered him a lot of ideas. The more time he spent studying these horses, the more his understanding of them grew. Day by day, Han Gan painted the horses, showing every de tail that he saw with his own eyes. 

Those who saw Han Gan's horse paintings were all surprised at his skills, saying that his horses could gallop(疾驰) off the paper. Even Su Shi, the famous poet of the Song Dynasty. expressed his admiration for Han Gan as one of the best horse painters with the words, "The horses painted by Han Gan are real horses. "