The World’s biggest photography competition, Wiki Loves Monuments, has a special 1916 theme to it, as well as a new writing competition this year.
This year’s photography competition runs until Friday, 30th September and is currently open for entries. Initiated by Wikimedia, the movement behind free encyclopaedia Wikipedia, and run in Ireland by the Wikimedia Ireland Community, the competition aims to raise awareness of Ireland’s national monuments and create a crowd-sourced bank of quality photos that will be free to use for education.
MONUMENTS LOCALLY
Amateur and professional photographers are invited to photograph the national monuments in their locality and upload their photos to www.wikilovesmonuments.ie. The site includes a listing of each county’s eligible national monuments. Entries will be judged by an expert panel and the winners will be announced on Sunday, 1st November. The top ten Irish images will then be entered into the international competition. There will also be prizes for the top three 1916 images.
WRITING COMPETITION
This year a new Wiki Loves Monuments writing competition is being launched. Running from Thurs., 1st September until Monday, 31st October, the competition is designed to engage more participants of Ireland’s Wiki Loves Monuments contest in actually creating and editing articles on Wikipedia. Entries to the competition must fall under one of three categories: Irish Monuments, People and Places of 1916, and Vicipéid (Gaeilge for Wikipedia).
Certified by Guinness World Records as the world’s largest photography contest, the annual contest started in the Netherlands in 2010 which resulted in over 12,500 images uploaded. Since then it has grown significantly and in 2014 over 321,000 photographs were submitted by more than 9,000 participants from around the world.
In 2015 the top ten Irish photos were: 1. Hook Head Lighthouse, Co Wexford by Michael J Foley; 2. Duckett’s Grove, Co Carlow by Michelle Ronan; 3. Kylemore Abbey, Co Galway by Vincent Moschetti; 4. Kilcrea Abbey, Co Cork by Davin Whooley; 5. Poulnabrone Dolmen, Co Clare by Frank Chandler; 6. Baldongan Church, Co Dublin by Mark Broderick; 7. Poulnabrone Portal Tomb, Co Clare by Frank Chandler; 8. Castleruddery embanked stone circle, Co Wicklow by Digital Eye; 9. Knockbrack Megalithic Tomb, Galway by Ronan Delaney; 10. Loughcrew Cairn in snow, Co Meath by Haydn Hammerton.
Rebecca O’Neill, Wikimedia Ireland commented, “We’re looking forward to another fantastic year for the Irish Wiki Loves Monuments competition. The quality of images being taken and entered has improved every year since the competition started in Ireland in 2014. Last year’s competition saw almost 1,700 new images entered. These are greatly adding to the existing database of freely accessible images of national monuments.”
“Don’t forget, anyone can take part. So visit your national monuments, take your best shots and upload them. There are no limits to the entries photographers can make – the photographer who won 7th place shot every monument near her, uploading 201 images, whereas the photographer who won first place only uploaded two images.”
HOW TO TAKE PART
- Find your nearest eligible national monuments from the list provided on the Wiki Loves Monuments website.
- Have a read of the rules and tips
- Go out and take your best shots or join a photowalk group.
- Return to the Wiki Loves Monuments website and upload your best images using the handy image uploader. You’ll find a link called ‘Upload Image’ underneath the name of each monument. You’ll be asked to register an account with Wikimedia Commons, if you haven’t already.
- For full details of the competition see www.wikilovesmonuments.ie and for updates see @wikimediaIE #WLMIE and Wikimedia Ireland’s Facebook page.
