Wiki Loves Monuments – the biggest photo competition in the world kicks off today!
Wiki Loves Monuments is an annual event which takes place across the globe every September, for the past five years.
This competition is now officially the biggest photo competition in the world according to the World Guinness Records for the second year in a row!!
The competition is designed to bring together people who value their local historic environment with amateur and professional photographers alike to capture images of the world’s historic monuments.
These photos are then shared with the world under free licences via Wikimedia Commons, a free media repository which amongst other things provides most of the images for Wikipedia.
The picture that appears above is by Bruce Sutherland, Principal Photographer for City of Cape Town. Taken on New Years Eve, the light show announced Cape Town’s status as World Design Capital 2014. The balcony of the Cape Town City Hall is where Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela made his first appearance after his release from Victor Verster Prison. This photograph has been entered into Wiki Loves Monuments.
All photographs are uploaded through the Wiki Loves Monuments portal on Wikimedia Commons which you can access on this site during September. All photographs are donated to the creative commons with a standard CC BY-SA 3.0 copyright so everyone in the world can use and enjoy the photographs freely. This is why many of the photographs are often used on Wikipedia.
Uploading is simple and can be done either by using the mobile/tablet app (for android, download here) or by plugging your camera into your computer and using our upload wizard. Remember that you have to register first, and all entries are released under the CC-BY-SA licence. For more information on this licence, click here.
Pictures can be taken at any time of the year in any year. The only requirement is that they are photographs of monuments in South Africa. A list of grade I and grade II photographs for Cape Town and Western Cape can be found on this page but any building with heritage status will be accepted. Places that are not already heritage sites but which are regarded as historically important sites may also be submitted.
September is also Heritage month in South Africa . Wiki Loves Monuments ZA, the South African component of Wiki Loves Monuments International, celebrates this by inviting members of the public to submit photographs of monuments from across South Africa and upload them.
