This Game Challenges You to Guess Which Year a Photo Was Taken
A fun new game made by a Redditor challenges people to guess the year a photo was taken. It tests camera knowledge and requires the player to know their history.
The game is called “Which Year Daily Challenge” and each day the user is presented with five photos that they must guess which year it was taken. The photo could have been shot anytime from 1850 to 2025.
The closer the player guesses to the year, the more points they receive. Similar to the popular New York Times game Wordle, Which Year refreshes each day with five new photos so players can keep coming back for more.
If the contestant gets stuck, there is a helping aid: the “Reveal Digit” button lets the player unmask one of the four digits in the year. For example, if the player is unsure which century the photo was taken, they can reveal the second digit which will tell them if the photo was taken in the 19th century, the 20th century, or the 21st century. And if they are sure of the century but unsure of the decade, then they can ask the game to reveal the third digit.
History Buffs
While photography students will likely have some idea of the date of the picture by simply studying the image’s aesthetics and artifacts; guessing whether the photo was taken on film or digital, et cetera. Non-photographers can also play along as the quiz is something of a history test.
For example, today’s quiz (April 17) features a photo of Nelson Mandela casting his vote in South Africa’s first democratic election, a moment of enormous historical significance. But the date that people may remember better is when Mandela was released from prison, a few years earlier.
Another photo that caught this reporter’s eye was of a protest where a man can be seen disrespectfully standing on a Union Jack, the British flag. Which major news event from the past 20 years can you remember where American protesters were livid with a British company? It’s a fun test to get the cogs of your brain whirring.
Head to the Which Year website to get guessing.
Answers: The photo of the Statue of Liberty was taken when it was still in France being displayed at the International Exposition in Paris, 1878. Mandela is seen casting his vote in 1994.
