Announcing 2017’s Worldwide Flickr Photowalk

The time has come again, #FlickrFam, to band together with photographers around the world for a global photowalk. This year’s Worldwide Flickr Photowalk theme is “Monuments and Historic Places” and we’re working with our friends in the Wikimedia community in support of the Wiki Loves Monuments 2017 (WLM) photography competition.

WLM is the largest annual photography competition in the world, but with a cool twist. All the images are freely licensed and can be used on Wikipedia or other free-knowledge projects. Given that Flickr is already home to the largest collection of Creative Commons works in the world (with 400+ million images), this seemed like a perfect fit for us!

Piazza di Spagna Rome Italy - Creative Commons by gnuckx

No matter where you are in the world, there are likely thousands of monuments to photograph near you. WLM organizers are setting up lists of monument IDs by country so you can find the officially recognized monuments in your area. If you don’t see a list for your country, you can still organize or participate in a Flickr photowalk; we’ll be sure the WLM organizers know there is interest in your country for 2018.

Check the list of Flickr Photowalks in the group discussion thread here. If you don’t see one for your city or region, you can organize your own. Just start a Flickr Group, Facebook Event, Meetup, and/or Eventbrite, and post a link in the discussion comments. We’ll add it to the list and help publicize on the official Flickr social media accounts.

Italy Roma - Creative Commons by gnuckx

To automatically add your photos to the Flickr Worldwide Photowalks Group and have them invited to the official WLM country competitions, use the tag #FlickrPhotowalk and #WLM2017 on your images. Be sure to also tag the monument ID, and the dataset (if applicable) for the photo. It would be useful to also geolocate the image on the Flickr map if your camera doesn’t automatically do this, or tag your images with country and city name (where the monument is located in).

Important! For your photos to be considered for WLM, you will also need to set their copyright to CC BY, CC BY-SA, or CC0. You can do this on the Flickr photopage of the images you want to submit to the contest. Or, if you have experience uploading to Wikimedia Commons, you can do so directly there (for example, the cultural heritage sites in Balochistan, Pakistan here).

Lincoln Memorial
NECHRONIQUE Marseille - Stephanie BaumardJPG
Roman Bridge Puente Romano Cangas de Onís (Asturias, España)
  • The When: The Wiki Loves Monuments competitions are open for submissions throughout September 2017. The exact start and end dates can vary from country to country. We’ll provide more details as the contest approaches.
  • The Why: The main idea behind Wiki Loves Monuments is to take pictures of monuments located in participating countries and to upload them during the competition to Wikimedia Commons under a free license for use on Wikipedia and its sister projects. Wiki Loves Monuments is a focused social formula for encouraging people to preserve cultural heritage.
  • The Where: Over 35 countries have already organized competitions for Wiki Loves Monuments 2017. View the full list here and join a photowalk near you. If there isn’t one, make one! :)
  • The How: During the month of September, take photos of monuments in your area and add them to the Flickr Worldwide Photowalk group using the tags #FlickrPhotowalk and #WLM2017. Set copyright on the images to CC BY, CC BY-SA, or CC0 to allow them to be invited to national competitions and for use on Wikipedia. Add the monument ID number as a tag for reference and cataloging. If you are interested in coordinating a photowalk in your country, create a Facebook event or Meetup page for it and comment in the Group Discussion with a link. We’ll add it to the master list of photowalk locations.