Go to any celebrity’s Wikipedia page and you’re likely to see a terrible photo of them. These photos are often old or out of focus, perhaps taken candidly on a smartphone during a public event. A group of volunteer photographers have decided to fix that, reports 404 Media.
Anything uploaded to Wikipedia should be freely available to anyone who wants it. Given that professional photographers want to make money from their work, they’re not likely to share their photos there.
Check out WikiPortraits, a team of amateur photographers who visit festivals, award ceremonies, and other events to take pictures of high-profile guests under a Creative Commons license. Some of the stars seem very happy to have a new photo on their Wikipedia page, which is the first stop for many people to learn about the person.
One photographer, Jay Dixit, said that Descendants star Jeremy Strong was more than happy to pose for the new photo. “His publicist said no,” Dixit recalls. But Jeremy said, “Wait, are you from Wikipedia? For God’s sake, please take this photo down. You’d be doing me a favor.”
The Wikimedia Foundation and donations fund the WikiPortraits effort, which you can read more about on the 404 Media website.
