Eighth edition of ‘world’s largest photography competition’ launched in Ireland

Wiki Loves Monuments, the world’s largest annual photography competition returns to Ireland for its 8th year.

It celebrates local and international built heritage by bringing together photographers from all around the world to upload their images for use on Wikipedia.

The competition is open for submissions from today 1st to 30th September, and any one can take part. Just upload as many of your own eligible images of Ireland’s protected structures through the interactive map to be in with a chance of winning prizes!

The top prize is an Amazon voucher worth €250, with additional prizes awarded for sites with no previous images uploaded and for obscure, remote, or challenging to photograph sites.

The competition was established by the Wikimedia community, the movement behind Wikipedia, and is organised locally by Wikimedia Community Ireland. Irish entries will be judged by a panel from Ireland and the wider Wikimedia movement, with the winners being announced in November 2021. These top ten Irish images will be entered into the international competition.

Since 2014 the Wiki Loves Monuments competition in Ireland has seen 967 uploaders submitting over 8,300 images. Our hope is to surpass 10,000 images uploaded from Ireland with this year’s competition. The winners of the 2020 competition can be found here, and the 2020 winners of the international competition are located here.

For full details of the competition see www.wikilovesmonuments.ie and for updates see @wikimediaIE #WLMIE and Wikimedia Community Ireland’s Facebook page.

Certified by the Guinness World Records as the world’s largest photography contest, the annual competition started in the Netherlands in 2010. All images are uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, Wikimedia’s online repository that makes public domain and freely-licensed educational media content (images, sound and video clips) available to everyone.

Shannon Eichelberger, chair of Wikimedia Community Ireland commented, “Wiki Love Monuments has become a fixture in our yearly calendar. It never ceases to amaze me the quality and variety of images that are uploaded every year. There are still many monuments that have no image, and I hope to see some of these monuments represented in 2021.”

How to take part in Wiki Loves Monuments:

1.     Find your nearest eligible national monuments from the interactive map
2.     Have a read of the rules and tips
3.     Go out and take your best shots
4.     Return to the Wiki Loves Monuments website and upload your best images using the map. You’ll be asked to register an account with Wikimedia Commons, if you haven’t already.

Wikimedia Community Ireland is an active group of volunteers that support and promote Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects such as Wikimedia Commons.

Their mission is to help people and organisations create and preserve open knowledge and to help provide easy access for all.

They do this by supporting volunteer editors and contributors, by working in partnership with Irish cultural and educational institutions, by hosting training sessions and editing events, and by promoting the benefits of open knowledge generally.

You can find out more about them online at www.wikimedia.ie on Twitter @WikimediaIE, and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/WikimediaIreland