How a Proud Father Changed the World of Communication Forever

Tech entrepreneur and new dad Philippe Kahn took the first cell phone picture ever

Published in
4 min readMay 30, 2021

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For anyone under the age of 30, life before cell phones probably seems like the dark ages. The thought of not being able to snap a photo and immediately post it on their social media or send it to a friend probably gives a lot of young people anxiety. Instagram alone has over 10 million users.

I remember having to take photos with an actual camera, place the used film in an envelope, drop it in the bin, and then wait a week before returning to pick up the photos, most of which were terrible. Everyone I knew had stacks and stacks of photo albums because that was the only way to store your priceless memories.

I don’t remember the first photo that I took with a cell phone, but I’m sure it was of something dumb. Philippe Kahn, however, wanted to take a photo of something so precious that he actually invented the cell phone camera. The first cell phone photo ever taken was of his newborn daughter, who was still adjusting to life in the outside world of the maternity ward.

Philippe Kahn

Kahn was born in 1952 in Paris, France, to Jewish immigrants. His mother, Claire Monis, was an Auschwitz survivor and a…

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Working mom who uses her curiosity to fuel the curiosities of others ~ Writes mostly history and true crime