Amateur and professional photographers are being encouraged to get out and capture Galway's national monuments as part of Wiki Loves Monuments, the biggest photography competition in the world.
This is the second year that the competition, organised globally by Wikimedia, the movement behind Wikipedia, has taken place in Ireland. The competition, which is under way and will run until Wednesday September 30, aims to raise awareness of national monuments and create a crowdsourced bank of quality images that will be free to use for educational purposes.
Amateur and professional photographers are invited to photograph the national monuments in their areas and upload their photos to www.wikilovesmonuments.ie. The site includes a listing of each county’s eligible national monuments; out of a total of 970 monuments around Ireland, there are 67 in County Galway, including 20 in the Aran Islands. Monuments include historic buildings and sites such as churches, graveyards, castles, and historic houses.
Entries will be judged by a three-person expert panel and the winners will be announced on Sunday 1st November. The top ten Irish images will then be entered into the international competition.
Last year the Wiki Loves Monuments competition in Ireland attracted 256 photographers who submitted a total of 2,015 images. The photographers uploaded photographs from a total of 271 different monuments and 323 of these images are currently being used in Wikipedia articles.
The project is being 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.
For full details of the competition see www.wikilovesmonuments.ie, and for updates see @wikimediaIE #WLMIE on Twitter, or find Wikimedia Ireland on Facebook.
