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Commons:WikiPortraits/Reports/2024

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Background

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Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects prioritize and typically requiring using freely-licensed images. This presents a perrenial challenge when it comes to photos of notable people, because most published photos of notable people are press images with full copyright and non-permissive licenses. This results in a significant number of Wikipedia biographies with poor quality or no photos. This challenge is quite notable in itself, having been covered by various publications including the New York Times in their 2009 article, "Wikipedia May Be a Font of Facts, but It’s a Desert for Photos".

An effective way to gather freely-licensed photos of notable figures at-scale is to go to where they are, such as festivals, awards ceremonies, and conferences. However, attending these events often requires press credentials and/or funding. These are easily available to professional photo agencies and media organizations, but more difficult for Wikimedians to acquire.

Various Wikimedian individuals and organizations have done a lot of work over the years to contribute freely licensed biographical photos. David Shankbone is a notable Wikimedia Commons contributor, documenting celebrities, political officials, and events. Gage Skidmore is another notable photographer, uploading his coverage of American public figures to Flickr under a free license. Several Wikimedia affiliates have also been active in photographing notable individuals. A few examples include Wikimedia Deutschland's annual coverage of the Berlin Film Festival and Festivalsommer; the Wikimedia Ghana User Group's 500 Notable Ghanaians Campaign; Wikimedia Sverige's coverage of numerous events, including Eurovision; and Wikimedia España's coverage of the Goya Awards and film festivals. Wikimedia affiliates often support Wikimedia photographers in getting credentials for events.

A comprehensive list of efforts by Wikimedia groups in photographing events can be found at Wiki Covers Events on Meta Wiki.

In the United States, while we have had a few Wikimedians and groups cover events on a more individual basis, we have had no concrete coordination across the board. In 2024, Kevin Payravi (User:SuperHamster), Jennifer 8. Lee (User:Jenny8lee), Frank Schulenburg (User:Frank Schulenburg), and Andrew Lih (User:Fuzheado) co-founded WikiPortraits. The goal of this group was to start with covering more events in the United States, and eventually expanding to support individuals and affiliates to cover events on a more global scale.

Introduction

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This report covers WikiPortraits activities throughout 2024.

Sundance Film Festival

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Press line photos 103
Portrait studio photos 135
Footage from the press lines

Sundance Film Festival was our first experiment, before WikiPortraits even had its name. Jennifer 8. Lee and Kevin Payravi had regularly attended the Festival through the Goodside community, and recognized their familiarity with the event as an opportunity to cover the event. With the Wikimedia Foundation providing credentialing letters, we were able to get Frank Schulenburg and User:Everwest credentialed, who were able to photograph a number of press lines for film premieres.

We also set up a public portrait studio during the festival, inviting any festival attendees to come and get their portrait taken and uploaded to the Wikimedia Commons. This served as an opportunity for us to do Wikimedia outreach and educate attendees about free licensing and the Commons.

Press line samples

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Portrait studio samples

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  • Our portrait studio
    Our portrait studio
  • Laurence Rupp, Austrian theatre and film actor
    Laurence Rupp, Austrian theatre and film actor
  • Jamal Trulove, American actor
    Jamal Trulove, American actor
  • Goh Nakamura, singer, songwriter, musician, composer and actor
    Goh Nakamura, singer, songwriter, musician, composer and actor
  • Zoë Eisenberg, for the film Chaperone
    Zoë Eisenberg, for the film Chaperone

SXSW (South by Southwest)

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Event photos 393
Portrait studio photos 457

South by Southwest (SXSW) is a conglomeration of conferences that occurs annually in Austin, Texas in March that draws in around 300,000 people each year as speakers and participants. SXSW activities span film, interactive media, comedy technology, and music. This provides an excellent opportunity for us to photograph notable individuals across a wide range of fields in a highly efficient manner.

We went to photograph notable people for Wikipedia and other Wikimedia sites. SXSW is a critical event because it attracts speakers and performers from tech, politics, film, music, and television at scale. This allowed us to engage with and capture portraits of notable individuals from across a range of industries in one location.

WikiPortraits photographers sought out notable individuals with Wikipedia articles to photograph, particularly at panels and events that include or attract high-profile individuals. We also set up a photo booth in a collaborative journalism and media house at SXSW on Congress Street where anyone with a Wikipedia page— speaker or not —may drop by and have their photo taken.

Conference samples

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Portrait studio samples

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International Journalism Festival

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Photos 174

One of our photographers, Jennifer 8. Lee, was attending the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, Italy, and took the opportunity to take photos of speakers.

Cannes Film Festival

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Photos 256

Cannes Film Festival is an international film festival, particularly notable for bringing film and talent from around the world. While we were not credentialed for Cannes in 2024, we were able to send our photographers to photograph interviews and panels, as well as capturing talent before and after press events.

One particular focus for us was photographing Q&As at the Directors' Fortnight, an independent track that includes films from around the globe. The track has historically featured early films from directors who became household names, such as Werner Herzog, George Lucas, and Martin Scorsese.

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

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Photos 428

Edinburgh Festival Fringe was a unique experience for us compared to other events we had covered in 2024. The event is nearly a month long, with over 3,500 unique shows throughout. While there are a good number of already notable performers and shows at Edinburgh, the majority are more of rising performers who are at Edinburgh to get their show on the map. As a result, as the month goes on and reviews come out, you start getting a sense of what's popular and what has the potential to make it big.

Throughout the month, our volunteer team worked to identify photo priorities. Our prioritization was a mix of several factors:

  • Already notable subjects with Wikipedia articles.
  • Subjects that don't yet have a Wikipedia article but should, or otherwise are on a path to become notable.
  • Subjects from the Global South and other communities underrepresented on Wikimedia projects.
  • The venue the performer is in (each venue is unique in terms of lighting, seating, and approval of photography).

For Edinburgh Festival Fringe, we covered roughly 50-60 shows that consisted of ~150 individuals (some shows had multiple performers, up to 12).

Edinburgh International Book Festival

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Photos 19

We did not originally plan (or even know of!) the Edinburgh International Book Festival, but our photographers on-the-ground at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe realized it coincided with the Fringe. We were able to join a few photocalls and sessions to photograph notable authors. Next year, we hope to cover both the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and International Book Festival in full force, as it is a great opportunity to photograph notable individuals across several industries.

Venice Film Festival

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Photos 361

The Venice Film Festival is a significant international festival. We were able to send two photographers, including one from Germany, to attend as press.

Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF)

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Photos 2,012

WikiPortraits attended the 2024 (TIFF) and sent several photographers including Kevin Payravi, Sara, Frank Sun, and others. Our photographers attended and shot over a hundred red carpets which featured films, filmmakers, actors, and other celebrities of high significance. Additionally, we attended and photographed panels, press conferences, and other events.

With roughly eight red carpets today, we actually needed more photographers than we had. We ended up recruiting a few additional photographers to help us out. TIFF ended up being our most productive and fruitful WikiPortraits event in terms of efficiency of cost and time. It is large and professionally run, with the red carpet venues being within a seven minute walk of one another, thus allowing us to send photographers rapidly between events. Unlike other events where WikiPortraits might get shut out depending on space availability, Toronto always gave us space if we reserved—even if we had lower priority to pick spots.


New York Film Festival

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Photos 71

National Book Awards

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Photos 273

With several of our photographers living in New York City, we were able to send them to photograph authors at the National Book Awards.

Nobel Prize Lectures and Ceremonies

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Photos 453

We were credentialed to attend the Nobel Prize lectures in Stockholm, as well as the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony in Oslo. This was a great opportunity for us to capture new and updated photos for the Nobel winners, and surrounding individuals (such as the Nobel Prize Banquet chefs).

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