Commons:WikiPortraits

Wikimania 2024 session on WikiPortraits
WikiPortraits poster for Wikimania 2025

WikiPortraits is a project to capture high-quality photographs of people for Wikimedia Commons, through in-person outreach and event coverage. It formally started in 2024 from efforts by WikiConference North America users in the United States Wikimedia community, and has since been building an international network of photographers.

Main external site: wikiportraits.org

As of March 2026, WikiPortraits images generate almost 400 million views per month, or more than 1 out of every 100 Wikipedia pageviews globally.

Our continuously-growing network of photographers come from countries including but not limited to Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Benin, Brazil, Canada, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, United Kingdom, and Tanzania. We have recruited more than 100 new photographer contributors to Wikimedia Commons, some of whom also become editors.


Note - This project should not be confused with the Wikiportrait project with the website Wikiportret.nl started in 2008 by users active on NL-Wikipedia and supported by Wikimedia Nederland. The uploads for that project are included in Category:Wikiportrait uploads.

Background

Many Wikipedia biographies have missing, low quality, or outdated photos, due to a lack of freely licensed media coverage of people and events. There have been efforts by Wikimedia communities and individuals over the years to help address this, particularly by going to events and photographing people. A few notable examples from Wikimedia affiliates include Wikimedia Deutschland's Festivalsommer and Landtagsprojekt projects, as well as Wikimedia Ghana User Group's 500 Notable People Photo Project and coverage of the African Games. Several Wikimedia affiliates also help Wikimedians get credentialed for events, such as Wikimedia Sweden. We started a page on Meta Wiki, m:Wiki Covers Events, to help document all these efforts from the Wikimedia community.

In early 2024, WikiPortraits was founded to help address this challenge, starting with the United States and rapidly expanding to a global scale. We are building an expansive network of wiki photographers to help cover more regions and events. In addition to helping wiki photographers cover local and international events (through credentialing, logistics, and funding support), we are building a pipeline to recruit new photographers to Wikimedia Commons, bring new editors to Wikipedia, and expand our coverage of cultural events.

We also love collaborating with affiliates and other groups. We have received support from and have worked with the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikimedia CH, Wikimedia UK, Wikimedia Norge, Wikimédiens du Bénin, AfroCROWD, and Wikimedia NYC, with more to come.

Our current activities are primarily funded by the Wikimedia Foundation through a 2025-2026 General Support Fund grant. We also receive support (financial and in-kind) from Wikimedia affiliates and donations.

Projects

Our Wikicurious - Capturing the Moment event with Wikimedia NYC and AfroCROWD

See Category:WikiPortraits by event type for our event coverage.

To display all subcategories click on the "▶":
WikiPortraits by event type (27 C)

One-off and individual coverage from WikiPortraits photographers can be found at Category:Other portraits by WikiPortraits photographers

Get involved

Are you a photographer, event organizer, or otherwise interested in getting involved with WikiPortraits? Do you need help getting credentials for an event?

Visit /Join for more details, or contact us via our talk page or online contact forms.

Newsletters

Our newsletters can be read off-wiki on our blog.

Reports

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Contacts

Tools

We have collected useful tools (built by us and others, on-wiki and off) on our WikiPortraits Tools Page.

Press coverage

A sample of photos from a few of our covered events using Commons Gallery export tool!

Eurovision 2025

2026 Winter Olympics

Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2025

Venice Film Festival 2024

South by Southwest 2024

2024 Sundance Film Festival

Working setups

Discuss

We're a community of practice! Ask anything or join the discussion to talk about event photography, future events, or new ideas!

See also

Category:WikiPortraits
Category:WikiPortraits