Announcing our new WikiPortraits Photo Service!
WikiPortraits launches its Photo Service at photos.wikiportraits.org. Highlights include SXSW/WikiHaus Austin, Sanremo Festival coverage, a volunteer profile, SheBelieves Cup soccer photos, and figure skating from the World Championships in Prague.
Sign up and see your images published around the world
We're excited to announce the beta version of the WikiPortraits Photo Service — a new home to discover the work of our volunteer photographers. At photos.wikiportraits.org, you can browse our event coverage from WikiPortraits photographers around the world.
Incoming Apple CEO John Ternus (L), who will take over from Tim Cook (R), during Apple’s 50th-anniversary kickoff event at Apple’s Grand Central Terminal store in New York City on March 13, 2026. Photos by Tessa Bury - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Every photo is displayed with full photographer credit and licensing information, so shots from Sundance, Eurovision, the Olympics, and beyond are properly attributed and easy to discover, all curated from tens of thousands of freely licensed WikiPortraits images from major events. As of March 2026, WikiPortraits images generate almost 400 million views per month, or more than 1 out of every 100 Wikipedia pageviews globally.
The Photo Service makes the contributions of WikiPortraits volunteer photographers more visible and more useful. When news organizations or publishers need freely licensed event photography, they now have a single destination to discover and easily reuse photos.
The Photo Service reflects where WikiPortraits is headed: from a volunteer portrait initiative to a globally recognized source of freely licensed event photography. If you're a media outlet or funder, this is a window into what the WikiPortraits community makes possible.
Updates
WikiHaus returns to Austin for SXSW 2026
Earlier in March, WikiPortraits and WikiHaus returned to Austin and SXSW. This year we gathered at the famed Graeber Mansion on Sixth Street in Austin, a historic venue with its own indoor pool that has hosted WikiHaus events going back to 2023. A hub for wiki events and creative spaces organized around public engagement with Wikipedia and the broader Wikimedia ecosystem, Wikihaus once again offered activities including "Ask a Wikipedian,” WikiAsteroids, and the popular WikiPortraits Portrait Studio.
WikiPortraits volunteer photographers had a chance to attend SXSW, and we also had the opportunity to host an after-party for Wikicurious, which was also in town offering a training event for more than a hundred editors at the Austin Public Library (APL).
WikiPortraits shoots Italy's Sanremo Music Festival
In February, WikiPortraits traveled to the Sanremo Music Festival, an annual Italian song contest held at the Teatro Ariston in Sanremo, and organized and broadcast by RAI (Italy's public broadcaster).
Now in its 76th edition, the festival runs across five nights, featuring 30 established artists competing in the main "Big Artists" section and a smaller Newcomers' section for artists aged 16–29. Voting combines public televoting, a press/TV/web jury, and a radio jury. The winner earns the right to represent Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest.
The 2026 edition ran February 24–28 and was hosted by Carlo Conti (also the artistic director) and singer Laura Pausini, with a rotating cast of celebrity co-hosts each night. Sal da Vinci won the main competition with "Per sempre sì," while Nicolò Filippucci took the Newcomers' prize with "Laguna."
Norwegian profile: Birgit Fostervold (aka Lensbirdie)
In 2024 alone, Birgit Fostervold photographed 231 concerts featuring 61 different artists, many of them metal bands. After WikiPortraits helped her with media accreditation, photos Birgit took at Norway's largest rock festival in 2025 have so far reached more than 4.5 million views on Commons.
Birgit says:
WikiPortraits represents a valuable opportunity to share my images on an additional platform, and through grants from WikiPortraits and Wikimedia Norge, I have been able to cover events that would otherwise have been financially out of reach.
2026 SheBelieves Cup
WikiPortraits’ Bryan Berlin traveled to New Jersey to cover the SheBelieves Cup, an annual invitational women's soccer tournament organized by U.S. Soccer. The tournament serves as a high-profile warm-up competition in the years between World Cups, giving national teams a chance to compete and prepare. This year’s Cup also serves as key preparation for the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup qualifiers.
The New Jersey portion of the 2026 tournament took place on March 7 at Sports Illustrated Stadium, close to Newark. The day featured a doubleheader — Canada vs. Argentina followed by the United States vs. Colombia.
More figure skating photos by WikiPortraits volunteers
It was a busy winter for WikiPortraits photographers, who were officially accredited to competitions all over the world.
Here are just a few stunning captures by Dillon Sachs, who was shooting the ISU World Figure Skating Championships in Prague, on behalf of WikiPortraits.
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.
Upcoming events WikiPortraits needs help covering include:
- SXSW London (UK, June)
- Essence Festival (New Orleans, USA, July)
- Edinburgh Festival Fringe (UK, August)
- Locarno Film Festival (Switzerland, August)
- Toronto International Film Festival (Canada, September)
Donate to WikiPortraits
WikiPortraits exists because of people like you! Donate to help expand our work adding more quality Creative Commons-licensed portrait photos to Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons!
