WikiPortraits

The October WikiPortraits newsletter is out! Over the past month, volunteers uploaded at least 10,000 freely licensed photos from 40 events to Wikimedia Commons. 🎥 The Busan, London, Toronto, Venice and Deauville film festivals 🍌 The Ig Nobel Prizes in Zurich, the first held outside the U.S. 🧵

Sharon Duncan-Brewster was fun to photograph, great smile, looked friendly and comfortable to be there. Photos taken with @wikiportraits.org and available to everyone on Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 4.0 #Photography #LFF #LFF2026 #RedCarpet #PortraitPhotography #WikiPortraits

Thank you to MAPR, to trainers Oscar Costero of WikiLatinos and @payravi.dev of @wikiportraits.org, to Patricia Tours, and to every editor who took part, from longtime contributors to first-timers. Many thanks as well to @craignewmark.bsky.social for supporting WikiCurious!

820 million views in one month! July was WikiPortraits' biggest month ever, thanks in large part to our World Cup coverage. Also in this issue: Indian Relay in Wyoming, Cardi B at Essence, the 60th Montreux Jazz Festival, and a new stats tool. blog.wikiportraits.org/wikiportrait...

Proud that @wikiportraits.org was onsite at 2:30 am to get photos of 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado in her first public appearance in almost a year — at after a harrowing journey from Venezuela on wooden boat (where they had to coordinate with the US military not to destroy it).

Attention Bryan fans!! There's a group of Wikipedians called WikiPortraits that takes portraits of public figures and navigates press passes. Volunteer with them if you want to support more Bryans or be your own Bryan! website is wikiportraits.org and the account to follow is @wikiportraits.org

If you're in need of positive and rather wholesome news, there's a high school teacher named Bryan who took a ton of freely licensed celebrity headshots at the New York Film Festival last month for Wikipedia, and I truly can't believe how drastic the upgrade is for some articles (thread)

Honestly? This is just perfect for Tim Robinson.

It's challenging to find current images of notable people on Wikipedia. However, WikiPortraits uploads freely-licensed photos of notable figures at-scale! Here's a recent photo of John Myung, founding member of Dream Theater. Henning Ihmels (2007), CC BY 2.5 Birgit Fostervold (2025), CC BY-SA 4.0

A nice thread about WikiPortraits from our friends at @wikimediafoundation.org (give us a follow on Bluesky? 🙂)

Switzerland-based WikiPortraits photographer Quejaytee's portrait of Tommy Cash, who represented Estonia at Eurovision 2025, has been viewed nearly 730,000 times across Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons. #photography 📷 Quejaytee, CC BY-SA 4.0

What are some of the most popular WikiPortraits uploads? This portrait of Tom Cruise at Cannes 2025 has been viewed 2.5 million times on Wikimedia Commons! #photography 📷 Harald Krichel, CC BY-SA 4.0

The folks at @wikiportraits.bsky.social and @wikimediach.bsky.social made a neat tool for wikiphotographers to create galleries/profiles from WikiCommons photos. Tested it with my "Birds of New York" gallery: commons.gallery/@rhododendri...

Irish artist David Nolan, of David Nolan Galleries, at Art Basel 2025, in Basel, Switzerland 📷 Kalai Ramu, CC BY-SA 4.0 #art #photography

Togolese painter, sculptor and installation artist Clement Gbegno at Africa Basel 2025 in Basel, Switzerland in June 2025. #art #photography 📷 RAWdz Ivan, CC-BY-4.0

German artist Katharina Grosse speaking on an Art Conversations panel during Art Basel 2025, in Basel, Switzerland. at Art Basel 2025. Grosse’s vibrant CHOIR installation was on view in Messeplatz, Basel, for the duration of the festival. #art #photography 📷 Jennifer 8. Lee, CC-BY-4.0

"The Squash" by Anthea Hamilton being performed at Basel Social Club 2025, as part of the Art Basel International Art Fair in Switzerland. 📷 Kevin Payravi, CC BY-SA 4.0 #art #photography

Flashback Friday! 🔥 Take a look back at our Wikicurious: Community Memory event last month with Rhizome and the Cybernetics Library. We had so much fun exploring the art installations, reading rare books, and editing Wikipedia articles about media art 😍

Coline Milliard, executive editor of Art Basel, at the Art Basel international art fair in Basel, Switzerland in June 2025. 📷 Bea Phi, CC-BY-4.0 #art #photography

Orlando Bloom and Katy Perry at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. 📷 Kevin Payravi, CC-BY-4.0

A nice writeup about WikiPortraits by @eikekuehl.bsky.social for Zeit Online: "Blurry, underexposed, and unflattering: Many Wikipedia entries contain terrible photos. The project WikiPortraits wants to change that – and is picking up the camera itself." (translation) www.zeit.de/digital/inte...

Paige Bethmann, a Haudenosaunee director and producer based in Reno, Nevada, at the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF). Bethmann's new film, 'Remaining Native,' was being shown at SIFF. #filmsky 📷 Imaginary Alley Cat, CC-BY-4.0

Actor Jerimiah Daniels at the 2025 Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF). Daniels stars alongside William Catlett in the film 'Color Book.' #filmsky 📷 Photo.joe.peacock, CC-BY-4.0

Another update from the 2025 Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF), this time Tracy Rector at the opening reception for "Tatau/Tattoo: Embodying Resistance", exhibit at Wing Luke Museum, Seattle, Washington. #filmsky 📷 Dan Depew, CC-BY-4.0

In May, WikiPortraits attended the 2025 Seattle Film Festival (SIFF). Here are Alex Moruo (director) and Tantiana Ushnitskaya (screenwriter), celebrating the release of their new animated short 'Munkha.' #filmsky 📷 Imaginary Alley Cat, CC-BY-4.0

WikiPortraits was front row to catch Pulp's first-ever performance at London's 02 on June 13, 2025. Photographer Ethnephoto (Emily Lily) captured great shots of the band and the crowd, with more spectacular shots uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. 📷Ethnephoto, CC-BY-4.0

More Cannes 2025 Red Carpet photos from our WikiPortraits photographers! Isabél Zuaa (for O Agente Secreto), Akinola Davies (My Father's Shadow), Janhvi Kapoor (Homebound), and Fares Fares and Tarik Saleh celebrating at 2025 Cannes Eagles of the Republic photocall. #filmsky 📷 Kacy Bao, CC BY-SA 4.0

Continuing our May recap, more wonderful WikiPortraits shots from the Cannes 2025 Red Carpet: Actor, screenwriter, playwright and writer Alice Carvalho, director and actor Scarlett Johansson, and Arab and Tarzan Nasser, directors of Once Upon a Time in Gaza. #filmsky 📷 Harald Krichel, CC BY-SA 4.0

Finishing up our look back at an amazing May for WikiPortraits, more photos from the Cannes Red Carpet. First up, three portraits by Gabriel Hutchinson: Filmmakers Momoko Seko and Spike Lee, and singer, songwriter and former first lady of France Carla Bruni. 📷 Gabriel Hutchinson, CC BY-SA 4.0

We made it to the Cannes Red Carpet! In May, WikiPortraits volunteers became officially accredited to photograph Cannes 2025! Here are a few BTS shots, including Harald Krichel, Martin Kraft and Gabriel Hutchison dressed to the nines! 📷Harald Krichel, Kevin Payravi, Jennifer 8. Lee, CC BY-SA 4.0

WikiPortraits photographers brought their A-game to Eurovision 2025. Here are some striking images of performances by Georgia's Mariam Shengelia, Poland's Justyna Steczkowska, and France's Louane. 📷 Quentin Jerome Thomas (Quejaytee), Wojciech Pędzich. CC BY-SA 4.0

Wikifunctions is Wikimedia's newest project. And it is not just for coders. This is a space where people around the world collaborate to create and share functions: small, reusable pieces of code that work across several languages and tools. 🧵⬇️ (1/3)

More BTS shots! After photographing a newly elected Pope Leo XIV, WikiPortraits headed to #Eurovision 2025, a dream come true for a volunteer photographer! Here are some behind-the-scenes shots (featuring Quentin Jerome Thomas on the Turquoise Carpet!) 📷 Wojciech Pędzich, Philip Romano CC BY-SA 4.0

A busy month of May for WikiPortraits also included capturing a portrait of Pope Leo XIV during an audience with the media on May 12 — this WikiPortraits image was used on the front page of Wikipedia! 📷Edgar Beltrán, CC BY-SA 4.0

Karin Winslow and Lana Wachowski at the opening of the 75th Berlin International Film Festival, February 13, 2025. 📷Harald Krichel, CC BY 4.0

A shot of TLOU2's Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal from a recent Wikiportraits trip to SXSW 2025. Photo by Bea Phi, original work. License: CC BY-SA 4.0 See the high-res image here: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Categor...

Are you a photographer who wants to contribute to WikiPortraits? You can shoot both new photos or we can help you upload existing works. Interested? Contact us here! www.wikiportraits.org/volunteer

WikiPortraits has our first press article! From @404media.co (I cold pitched them after reading all their very excellent Wikipedia coverage). I love quotes from all our wiki volunteer photographers Jeremy Strong, Jaipur Literature Fest. www.404media.co/photographer...

This very nice BBC article is a great explainer about the WikiPortraits project. "Pictures uploaded must be a contributor's own, freely licensed or in the public domain. As a result (Wikipedia) contains many images added by enthusiasts rather than taken by photographers." www.bbc.com/news/article...