9,513 photos in one month: WikiPortraits' busy August
WikiPortraits photographers spent a busy summer covering events across the world. In August alone we uploaded 9,513 photos, now in use across 159 language Wikipedias.
WikiPortraits photographers spent a busy summer covering events across the world. The pictures we uploaded in August are now being used across 159 language Wikipedias, and counting!
During the month of August alone, WikiPortraits uploaded 9,513 photos to 126 event categories on Wikimedia Commons. Just over a thousand of our August uploads are already in use across 4,663 articles.
The biggest sets came from the Locarno Film Festival, the Edinburgh Fringe, and San Diego Comic-Con. We also covered the Edinburgh International Book Festival and Dragon Con in Atlanta.
WikiPortraits and Wikimedia UK at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe
WikiPortraits and Wikimedia UK sent a team of at least 13 photographers to the 79th Edinburgh Festival Fringe this year. The Fringe has run every August since 1947. It is the world's largest arts festival and one of the three biggest ticketed events in the world, alongside the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup, both of which WikiPortraits has also covered.
The Fringe is open access, meaning no panel decides who performs. More than 3,000 shows come from around the world, and critics review them. That makes it a great place not only to photograph performers but also to start Wikipedia articles about them, since there's plenty of coverage in (decently) reliable sources. It's also one of our favorite places to recruit photographers: it's where we were first introduced to Bryan Berlin, most recently of WikiPortraits World Cup fame.
Annie Rauwerda's Depths of Wikipedia show also spent August at the Fringe. The show received a Rapid Grant for public engagement, which led to pic.wiki, an experimental lightweight tool for faster event photography uploads to Commons. Annie also gave WikiPortraits a recruiting shoutout in her shows, which is how we connected with Amy Hecht, who jumped in and uploaded her own Fringe photos.
A number of performers received new or updated photos across different language Wikipedias. They include Russian-British stand-up comedian, writer, and actor Olga Koch; American actor and comedian Ify Nwadiwe; and Singaporean comedian Li Jin Hao, a nominee for this year's Edinburgh Comedy Award for Best Show. WikiPortraits also photographed performance groups from South Africa, Palestine and Zambia.
The WikiPortraits team at this year's Fringe included Philip Romano (User:PhilipRomano), Hongyi Zhou (User:Runawaymo), Marlene Landu (User:Marlyrocks), Matt Byford (User:MattyBoomtingphotos), Jace Merlyn (User:JaceMerlyn), Mateusz Malta (User:Landsil), Amy Hecht (User:Ah7231), Rebecca (User:Crazydancer271) and Stacy Price (User:Bigmagicnow). Jennifer 8. Lee, Kevin Payravi, Bryan Berlin, and Amy Martin also joined the team in Edinburgh.
Meeting Jimmy Wales at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
Convened alongside the Edinburgh Fringe, the Edinburgh International Book Festival is one of WikiPortraits' favorite opportunities to get photos of notable authors from around the world (though the light at EIBF's photo calls is always a wild card). This year it ran from August 15 to 30 under the theme "Changing Your Mind" and brought nearly 600 writers from 41 countries to Edinburgh over 16 days.
One of the authors photographed was Wikipedia's own Jimmy Wales, who has been on the literary circuit since the publication of his book, "The Seven Rules of Trust: A Blueprint for Building Things That Last." (WikiPortraits ran into him at Jaipur Literature Festival in February). Philip Romano photographed Wales; Sanna Marin, the former prime minister of Finland; and John Grisham.
Another writer WikiPortraits is proud to photograph again: Taiwanese author Yáng Shuāng-zǐ, who won the 2026 International Booker Prize for "Taiwan Travelogue." (WikiPortraits had already captured a passable photo from the earlier National Book Awards in New York City.) Mateusz Malta's portrait of the author has so far been added to six language Wikipedias including Arabic, Catalan and Kashmiri.
Covering the Locarno Film Festival with Wikimedia CH
Our photos of the 79th Locarno Film Festival in August, covered with support from Wikimedia CH, Switzerland's Wikimedia chapter, were rapidly added to Wikipedias in many languages by editors. Kalai Ramu's photocall portrait of Olivia Wilde has been the most prominent photograph from Locarno, with over 1 million monthly views so far across articles about Wilde and her latest film, "The Invite."
Luca Fazzolari's portrait of Darren Aronofsky, who received the festival's Leopard of Honour, has so far appeared across nineteen language Wikipedias, from Armenian to Vietnamese.
Ramu's portrait of Isabella Rossellini was used to update the English, French and Italian Wikipedias. Ségolène Liger's portrait of Kingsley Ben-Adir was added in English and German, and her portrait of Kim Min-hee, who took one of this year's acting Leopards, was added to her English Wikipedia article. Quentin Thompson's photograph of Zoe Saldaña, taken during her talk at the festival, is on the French Wikipedia.
The WikiPortraits team at Locarno included Kalai Ramu (User:Kalai Ramu), Ségolène Liger (User:Segolene Liger), Quentin Thompson (User:Quejaytee), Walid Farouk (User:Walid Farouk), Luca Fazzolari (User:LucaFazPhoto) and Marlene Landu (User:Marlyrocks). Daiei Onoguchi also joined the team in Locarno.
WikiPortraits at San Diego Comic-Con
Wikimedia contributor Gage Skidmore has long been famed for his photographs from San Diego Comic-Con, a massive cultural event which fills the San Diego Convention Center every July with film/television panels, comics programming and cosplay. This year, WikiPortraits sent photographer Kevin Paul to SDCC, the largest event of its kind in North America.
The most widely used photos may come as a bit of a surprise. Paul's portrait of Aaron Pierre has the widest reach of any photograph in this roundup, with 2.71 million views so far on nineteen language Wikipedias. His portrait of Kyle Chandler has so far reached 2.47 million views and is in use across 43 Wikipedias. Portraits of comics writer Tom King and producer Damon Lindelof have reached 1.92 million and 1.69 million views respectively.
Dragon Con in Atlanta
WikiPortraits sent photographer John Manard as credentialed press to Dragon Con this year with a mission: find the presenters whose Wikipedia biographies lack a suitable portrait, and do something about it. Dragon Con is a massive annual multi-genre fan convention covering science fiction, fantasy, comics, gaming and film, held every Labor Day weekend across a cluster of downtown Atlanta hotels. This year's edition, held September 3-7, was its 40th.
John's portrait of fantasy novelist Lynn Abbey has so far been added to her biography across ten language Wikipedias, from Arabic to Ukrainian. His portrait of illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi is so far in use on four. And his portrait of Richard Garriott, the creator of Ultima, now leads the English Wikipedia article and appears on its Video Games portal.
WikiPortraits volunteer spotlight: Marlene Landu
This month's WikiPortraits volunteer spotlight introduces Marlene Landu (User:Marlyrocks), a London-based photographer who has spent the last two decades traveling the world.
In this Q&A, Marlene shares how she got started in photography, what it is like to shoot international film festivals, and where you can see more of her work.
Before and After WikiPortraits
On Wikipedia, biographies typically include poor quality portrait shots, or no photos at all. We launched WikiPortraits in 2024 to fill this gap. Here are some of the more notable — and funny — before and after shots.
Before WikiPortraits Bronze plaque, San Jose Sports Hall of Fame. By BrokenSphere, CC BY-SA 3.0. | After WikiPortraits At the 2026 U.S. Gymnastics Championships. By SpiritedMichelle, CC BY-SA 4.0. |
Before WikiPortraits By Jith12, CC BY-SA 4.0. | After WikiPortraits By Bryan Berlin, CC BY-SA 4.0. |
Before WikiPortraits By TheNickster, CC BY-SA 2.0. | After WikiPortraits By Bryan Berlin, CC BY-SA 4.0. |
WikiPortraits leads a Wikipedia training session in Puerto Rico
Wikicurious: Arte y Cultura (Puerto Rico) drew new and existing Wikipedians to the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico (MAPR) on Friday, August 28 and Saturday, August 29 for two days of editing and photography in San Juan's Santurce barrio.
Wikicurious and MAPR presented the event in collaboration with WikiLatinos and WikiPortraits. We were very impressed with how engaged the audience was on the issue of copyright and freedom of panorama on Wikimedia Commons (no, graffiti murals are not allowed on Commons currently, as the underlying copyright makes it difficult for a photo to be licensed through Creative Commons.)
Get involved with WikiPortraits!
WikiPortraits welcomes new volunteers. If there's an event in your region you think should be covered by WikiPortraits, let us know, and we'll help get you started.
Here are some of the events in the WikiPortraits autumn calendar:
- Toronto International Film Festival (Canada, September), with Wikimedia Canada
- New York Film Festival (New York, September)
- Busan International Film Festival (South Korea, October)
- Manito Ahbee Pow Wow (Treaty No. 1 Territory, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, October) with Wikimedia Canada (again!)
- Zurich International Film Festival (Switzerland, October)
Donate to WikiPortraits
WikiPortraits exists because of people like you. Donate to help support our photographers' efforts to add more quality Creative Commons-licensed portrait photos to Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons.
