WIKI Loves Monuments

There are only a few days left to submit your entry to the world’s biggest photography competition!

WIKI Loves Monuments is an international event, which sees amateur and professional photographers from across the globe enter photos of local monuments to compete for a main award. This year’s big prize is a trip to Wikimania 2015 in Mexico City, including conference access, travel and accommodation.

Supported by The Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht; National Heritage Week; The Heritage Council of Ireland; The Office of Public Works; Open Knowledge Ireland and Dimension Data, this is the first time the competition has been held in Ireland.

Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Simon Harris TD said of the competition “Promoting public engagement with our monuments is an important part of the work of OPW, so I am delighted to see Ireland participate in this competition for the first time. I look forward to enjoying the beautiful and inspiring images that I am sure will result.”

All images entered into the competition are uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, a massive online repository of media which is in the public domain and available to everyone.

The winner will be announced on the 31st of October after an expert panel of five judges has examined all the entries. The judges will then put their choices forward for the international competition. Last year the competition received almost 370,000 photographs from nearly 12,000 participants worldwide. The awards ceremony will be in held in mid-November.

The closing date for entries is the 30th of September. To read a list of eligible monuments and find out how to enter, check out the WIKI Loves Monuments Ireland website.

By Aimée Mac Leod