The amateur photographers fixing Wikipedia’s ‘terrible’ pictures

Wikipedia is one of the most visited web sites in the world, but by accepting some of its volunteer editors, it suffers from a continuous problem – terrible, especially celebrities.

It is full of prominent people with very old or not so eligible images that there are Instagram accounts for them Worse than.

The problem arises because the professional photographers attend, for example, tends to show films to work in large agencies: their work is protected by copyright and usually needs to be paid to reproduce.

Wikipedia – which volunteers maintain largely – has no budget for that.

I launched some enthusiasts WikiportraitsA project to employ a group of volunteer photographers around the world and obtain their accreditation to attend film, conference festivals and other events.

“I have Wikipedia for the longest time, it was missing or poor pictures of people,” said Kevin Bayerfry, one of the project’s founders.

“This issue has always been at the back of our minds as editors Wikipedia.”

He spoke to the BBC from Austin, Texas where he and his colleague Jennifer Lee were covering the SXSW festival, with their photo booth to get pictures.

“Some people are very bothering the terrible pictures of Wikipedia, and they want to save the world from them as well,” said Lady.

“The bad pictures are very funny – there are some amazing points of humans there.”

Wikipedia has strict rules for Photography and publishing rightsSo the downloaded images should be a private property, a marine license, or in the public domain.

As a result, it contains many pictures to which enthusiasts are added instead of being taken by photographers.

In some cases, it means just an unwanted image – but sometimes it is much worse.

Main example: The comedian Emile Wakim, from the popularity of Saturday Night Live.

For a week last November, the image above – apparently taken at the New York Standing Show – Wikipedia’s image.

When removed, the editor indicated, “There is no better picture than what is currently.”

The image of the English soccer player Kyle Bartley, which was taken in 2011, was also highlighted by social media users as a guide to the Wikipedia image problem.

Wikiportraits She started her work at the beginning of 2024.

Photographers and most of them are salaries in the United States, but there are volunteers all over the world.

Jennifer and Kevin says their photographers tend to be a Wikipedia lover, photography enthusiasts, and professionals who are keen to build their governor.

So far, 55 of them have done Wikiportraits, or are committed to doing so.

Brian Berlin is one of the photographers. He was a high school and comedy teacher arrested from New York, participating for the first time in Wikepports during his performances at the Edinburgh Festival.

The New York Film Festival and Sindis was attended, and took pictures of Kiran Kulkin and Mickey Madison.

He says he is driven to improve Wikipedia.

“There is a better picture of someone who gives better information to someone who arrives in Wikipedia,” he told the BBC.

He may not be salary but Brian feels something for him as well, saying that working on the red carpet made it a better photographer.

It was one of his favorite experiences with a celebrity with the Lord of the Rings Star Elijah Wood.

“He was just a nice person, and he said it’s so great that we were doing this.”

Edinburgh Festival, the Canal Festival and Nobel Awards are some of the events that it covers so far, and the project says that its photos are about 100 million times a month.

Some of the biggest names in entertainment now have a Wikipestris image as their Wikipedia image.

Although these images attract attention, the project is also proud to take pictures of people, such as film makers who were represented by an active actress, who had no picture of Wikipedia at all.

Frank Sun is a film director and filming of photography. His work on Wikipestris includes Florence Bug and Bin Steller photos.

Also based in New York, he took pictures at the Cannes Festival and Toronto Film Festival.

He recalls proudly with Laetitia Dosch, the French actress, writer and director.

She said: “My picture is terrible, it’s years ago. I am very excited to update as people are looking for me, it is an old picture. “

“I think she was happy.”

How does the future look like? Wikeporttes hopes to attract more photographers from all over the world to cover events in their countries.

While sports photography is displayed, there are no video plans.

The charming carpet and magic will always be a tie.

“Our dream is to obtain credit papers for a dead concert and the Academy Awards,” Jennifer Lee said.

“This is when we know that we did it.”