Wiki Loves Monuments 2020 Contest

Photo by MichaelDPhotos (CC BY-SA 4.0)

There must be a lot of historic sites near anyone that they don't know about.

Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons are having a contest to encourage contributions. You can provide fresh photographs of historic sites in the U.S. to help them in their mission. There are a few modest prizes, but I suspect the prize money is not why anyone would do this—it's more that it's a fun way to get out and look around, a way to provide a purpose for photographic jaunts. Sort of a general assignment to give shape to your activities. I have a friend who does this, and it's been motivating and involving for him. He's in an area of the country that's new to him and his wife and they've found it's a nice way to explore their adopted community and the surrounding regions.

Here's the contest page. You can read about it there, but basically you're tasked with finding recognized historic sites local to you and photographing them for the database.

Sounds like it could be fun. A new way, perhaps, to get out and explore your area. The contest lasts through the end of the month but if you enjoy doing this, there's no time limit on contributing to Wikimedia projects.

Mike

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Richard Tugwell (partial comment): "For folks in the UK (or England anyway) Historic England has a feature allowing users to contribute images and other things to the Listed Buildings archive. No prizes though, but quite rewarding."

Geoff Wittig: "I got excited by this idea since I know there are quite a few historic rural buildings near me. I got more excited when I saw one of the sites was an impressive and unusual barn quite close to my home. Surely I could photograph it in perfect light looking its best.... Then I remembered. This barn was photographed by David Plowden, as part of an entire book of beautiful barn photographs. Plowden gave a presentation about the project at George Eastman Museum about 15 years back, and I got to talk to him about it. He was exceptionally polite. Pretty unlikely I'll take a better photograph than David Plowden did."

Mike replies: But do they have a good photograph of the barn on the existing Wikipedia page? If not, then yours might still be needed.

MikeR: "Following their proffered link, I found a list of historic sites in Pennsylvania's Montgomery County, and was surprised to find that I live near, or near enough, to at least a dozen of them. In some cases, I already have the images."

Comments

[Crabby Umbo]

Love the Baha'i Temple in Wilmette! I was unceremoniously asked to leave, with my parents, when I was crying in there as a little kid! Now an oft told piece of family lore!

[Kenneth Tanaka]

Looks like a terrific, productive little photo contest, Mike! (Of course as a life-long Chicagoan I immediately recognized that image as the Bahá’í Temple located in Wilmette, a northern suburb or Chicago.)

Separately, but relatedly, the photographer Joel Sternfeld undertook a project in the '90s to photograph sites where some historic, often horrific, event took place. In some (most) cases no traces of the event remained. But his masterful use of very neutral, unblinking images of these scenes is more chilling than a news photo might have been!

The book, by Steidl, accompanying the resulting exhibition is titled "On This Site". If your back's out and you can't get around easily this will keep you well entertained.

[Richard Tugwell]

For folks in the UK (or England anyway) Historic England has a feature allowing users to contribute images and other things to the Listed Buildings archive

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/enrich-the-list/

No prizes though, but quite rewarding.

Check out the funky camera in the banner image at the above url - assuming it doesn't get randomly rotated

[Kodachromeguy]

The contest is a great idea. Unfortunately, the example you showed looks garish and over processed. It looks like a digital file. Also, the building has converging lines. I suspect this is the type of photographer who never heard about shift lenses or never used a large format camera where he could control converging lines on architecture.

[Daniel]

Free Photos for Wiki use.
All their people get paid - but they think a few cheezy prizes and a ton of FREE photographs is just fine.
Just one more outfit who shows you how much they actually value your images.

[David Dyer-Bennet]

"All their people" do not get paid. I'm sure they have some full-time employees, who of course get paid, but nearly all of the content, text and photos, is generated by volunteers, not by employees. There are quite a few of my photos already in use their (none of historic monuments).