Commons:Wiki Loves Monuments 2024/Jury report
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Introduction
[edit]This is the fifteenth year in which Wiki Loves Monuments has been organised. In 2024, over 239,000 photos were submitted by 4,523 users. The contest was organised through a number of national contests coordinated by local volunteers; this edition was, together with 2018, the one with the highest number of national competitions, 56, resulting in a total of 454 entries for the international jury to consider.
As in previous years, Wiki Loves Monuments 2024 invited people to submit photos of monuments listed within their respective national competitions throughout the months of September and October. Wiki Loves Monuments maintains its popularity over the years, and in this latest edition there was an increase in the total number of submissions and the number of participating countries compared to previous years.
In this report we provide some insights in the judging process and outcomes. The report includes a summary of the process steps and announces the winning photos. We have also included the finalists that did make it to the final selection of 55 photos, but did not win a prize. The reasons why the jury members have selected these photos as their top ranking winners are included in this report as well.
Wiki Loves Monuments is the largest photography competition in the world, and reaching this finale is an accomplishment in itself. We congratulate all photographers who have submitted photos that reached this level. We hope you will enjoy the collection of wonderful heritage photographs as much as we did through the jury process and in preparing this report.
How did the jury work?
[edit]National competitions, which took place throughout the months of September and October, submitted their nominated photos by 2 December. At this time, a total of 454 were submitted to the non-voting jury coordinator by the national juries of 49 national competitions. These were joined by 7 others who did not send their images, making a total of 56 participating countries. Each national competition was allowed to submit up to 10 photos. The international jury was tasked to come up with a final ranking of the top photos over a three-round jury process.
The nominations were collected in the jury tool ‘Montage’, where all 9 jury members independently rated all photos from 1 (poor) to 5 (very good) stars. The jury coordinator collected the photos with the highest average rating: 64 photos.
Jury members were invited to comment via email on these 64 photos and the selection in general, and if any three jury members agreed through a ‘veto’ process that a photo does not belong to the top 25, it would be removed from the selection for the third round. Through this process, 9 photos were removed, and therefore 55 photos remained on the ‘long list’ for the third round.
In the third and final round, the jury members used the jury tool to rank their top-25 from the remaining photos. They each selected 25 photos, and submitted them in order. A first place ranking by a jury member was worth 25 points, a second place 24 points, all the way to 1 point for a 25th place. These points were added together, resulting in a combined jury ranking. Ties were resolved by the highest rank the photos received, and as part of a final evaluation to define the top-25, 4 more images were removed. The jury members had the opportunity both in the second and the third round to give a reasoning for their vote, which was used as a basis for the jury comments in this report.
What did the jury do?
[edit]The international jury was made up by a group of nine experts with varying backgrounds in photography, heritage and Wikimedia, as well as with a diverse range of cultural backgrounds doing justice to the diversity of Wiki Loves Monuments’ participating photos. Members of the international jury did not participate in the national juries, which were excluded from consideration for the international finale. The international team would like to thank them for their service.
The jury members based their judgement on three main criteria:
The first criterion is about the quality of the photo itself. This includes considerations such as the sharpness and resolution, the use of light, and the perspective of the photo. A good rule of thumb is that a winning photo should fulfil the Wikimedia Commons technical criteria for ‘featured picture’ status.
This criterion takes into account the general originality or innovation of the competing photo. The jury looked into whether the subject had been photographed in a similar way before. Jury members were looking for that little ‘extra’ that your photo may contain.
One of the main goals of this competition is to collect good-quality photographs of monuments to be used on Wikipedia. This criteria reflects this consideration. Does the photo represent the monument clearly and can it be used in an encyclopaedic context? Is it misrepresenting the monument in any way, or are there any distracting details?
Who was on the jury?
[edit]- Alireza Akhlaghi: Winner of WLM 2018, he is a photographer and astronomer with 15 years of experience. Although his main profession is prosthodontics, he dedicates most of his time in amateur photography and astronomy. He has been in Iran’s national stage jury of WLM for two years.
- Azim Khan Ronnie: He has an utter passion for photography and photography has been his passion. As a photographer, his essential aim is to capture the moments of life and give them significance by making them static in time. He loves to travel and be in different places, meet new people, and enjoy the experience that photography offers, which is to capture Earth’s beautiful and awe-inspiring moments. He has taken part in many International Photography contests and till now he has won more than 700 international photography awards. His photographs were published in more than 300 different international newspapers & magazines.
- Clara Villalba: Architect and Master in Conservation of Monuments and Sites. Career civil servant in the Department of Development, Logistics, Housing and Territorial Cohesion of the Government of Aragon. Member of the Spanish National Committee of ICOMOS, where she has worked on issues related to SDGs, the impact of renewable energies on cultural heritage in sparsely populated areas, communication and dissemination and the integration of young professionals in the organisation.
- Farah Mustaklem: He is a software engineer from Palestine. A Wikimedian since 2005, he is an advocate for open knowledge and defender of digital rights.
- Harald Krichel: He is a photographer from Germany and a Wikipedian since 2003. He’s been part of the jury for WLM Germany twice, though his own work for Commons consists mostly of photographs of people.
- Jorge Benet: Multimedia artist, researcher on innovation and maintenance of open technologies and advocate of libre software. History enthusiast and Wikipedia contributor since 2008.
- Karen Bernedo Morales: She is a curator, film maker and visual anthropologist from Perú, focusing on archives, monuments, history and gender. She is co-founder of the collective alternative museography project Museo Itinerante Arte por la Memoria. She has been part of the Wiki Loves Monuments jury in Perú.
- Nwonwu Uchechukwu P: She is a Mass Communication graduate. Creative thinker with a passion for enhancing digital media projects and contributing to open knowledge communities. She is affiliated with the Igbo Wikimedia User group and has been a member of the Wikimedian movement since 2022. Currently she is the Regional Ambassador for Central Africa at Wiki Loves Folklore 2024.
- Valentine Uwimpuhwe: She volunteers with Wikimedia User Group Rwanda, managing social media and content creation. She has served as a jury member in local and international Wikimedia competitions, earning a special nomination for the Human Rights and Environment jury team for Wiki Loves Earth 2023.
Competition Winners
[edit]
First place
Statue Christ the Redeemer over the clouds. It was created by sculptor Paul Landowski and built by engineer Heitor da Silva Costa, in collaboration with engineer Albert Caquot. Constructed between 1922 and 1931, the statue is 30 metres high, excluding its 8-metre pedestal.
In this image the photographer has put the landscape, the backlight and the open frame in dialogue to convey the concept of "redemption" that gives the photo its title.
Great composition (2/3 horizon), colour palette and perspective to show the vast scale of the monument.
Second place
Aerial view at sunset of the Red University Building. It is the principal and oldest 4-story building of the Kyiv University. It was constructed from 1837 to 1843 by architect Vincent I. Beretti, and it is a famous symbol of the University and the Ukrainian fundamental higher educational system.
The open plan of this photo makes it very impressive, the level of sharpness, the symmetry and the handling of color that in the middle of an empty and snow-covered city perfectly highlights the red building.
The building's symmetric red façade stands out and breaks the colour uniformity of the rest of this city's winter picture, getting all the attention.
Third place
The image shows a view of the monastery of Rousanou, an Eastern Orthodox monastery that is part of the Meteora monastery complex in Thessaly. Situated at the top of a rocky precipice, its exact origin is unknown although one theory attributes the foundation of the monastery in 1388 to the monks Nicodemus and Benedict.
This image vividly captures both natural and human history in a single frame. The soft pink light adds originality and imagination, creating a fantastic atmosphere that feels almost mythical, yet truly exists. The monastery’s proportion relative to the massive rocks, clearly exemplifies the scale of this geological wonder and its unusual rounded shapes.
The Meterora monastery is also a very photographed monument, the perspective of this image is extremely original, it highlights how alive and human the monastery is, the light and fog are a perfect combination for the poetry that that photo contains.
Fourth place.jpg)
The Museum of Contemporary Art was founded in 1958 as the Modern Gallery, making it one the first museums of this type in the world. It was moved into the current building in the Ušće neighborhood in 1965. The building is a masterpiece of architects Ivan Antić and Ivanka Raspopović. The collection contains more than 35,000 works of art.
It perfectly captures the architectural features of the museum (features that cannot be appreciated from any other angle) and this conveys perfectly the vision the architects had when designing it. Additionally, it portrays one of the world's first modern art museums and, arguably, one of the most representative examples of modern architecture as art.
The photographer made the right decision to portray the building when lit by its own artificial lightning. This choice enhances the understanding of the building’s angles (the main feature) thanks to the interplay between the glass and the lighting. Recognizing modern architecture as part of our cultural heritage, on par with classical or ancient monuments, is crucial.
Nice composition and light contrast and example of contemporary architecture and modern materials and layout.
Fifth place
It is an emblematic market in the city of Porto. The current building, an avant-garde work at the time due to the use of reinforced concrete, with metallic structures, wooden roofs and granite masonry, was built in 1914 according to a project by Correia da Silva.
The perspective of the photograph cleverly shows the extent of the market size, and although only the front shops are showing, the perspective suggests all the rest of the locals and their varied goods along the aisles.
It is striking that although there is only one character in the picture, one can imagine the market full of activity and people walking on its aisles and talking to each other. The black and white image also conveys the period when the market was originally built making us also remember that at that same time, photography was invented.
Very harmonious picture with beautiful symmetric composition from the staircase. It shows the spatial quality of the market and the geometry of its roofs.
Sixth place
Mellieha Parish Church under a full moon. It is a Roman Catholic church in Mellieħa, dedicated to the Nativity of Mary. It was built between 1881 and 1898, and the dome and bell towers were completed between 1920 and 1940.
Seventh place
A parish church located at Gravdal in Vestvågøy municipality in Nordland. The building is a long basilica-shaped church made of timber in the dragon style. This is an architectural style that arose in Norway at the end of the 19th century and was particularly widespread in the period 1880–1910.
The red church contrasts intensely with the snowed background, making the monument stand-out but at the same time not reducing the importance of it’s beautiful surroundings, thanks to the scale of the building and its proportion in the whole image. The composition shows clearly the geometries of the church as well as it’s position in the context of the bay.
Eighth place
Aerial view of the Monument to the Unknown Hero, a World War I memorial located atop Mount Avala, south-east of Belgrade, and designed by the sculptor Ivan Meštrović. The memorial was built in 1934–1938 on the place where an unknown Serbian World War I soldier was buried. The Žrnov fortress was previously located on the same place.
The photographer on his part chose in my opinion the best time of the year to portray the memorial as the cover of the snow and the fog makes the scene more dramatic making the analogy of the harsh climate with the roughness of life in war time. Including two people in the frame makes the image Wiki useful because it shows the scale of the monument.
Nice aerial perspective which shows the layout, the environment and the volumes of the heritage site.
Ninth place
It is a ribat in the village of Seyyed Abad in Chenaran. It dates from the Safavid period and consists of a square and rooms for the use of travellers. The main building is constructed of mud-brick.
Unusual forms that resemble wide open eyes looking back at the viewer, and an instant realization of a top down perspective of man made formations on the ground, make this image one of the most original in the contest.
The walking person and his shadow passing by, unnoticed by the many big eyes also adds a brief story to the picture. The texture of the ground adds richness to the image.
Beautiful "grid", nice soft colour palette and the touch of the walking person and his/her shadow, to better understand the scale and the volumes of the cavities.
Tenth place
The Basilica of Superga and the Monte Rosa massif in the background at sunset. It is a hilltop Catholic basilica in the vicinity of Turin, built from 1717 to 1731 for Victor Amadeus II of Savoy, and designed by Filippo Juvarra.
The last ray of the sunset shines on the dome of the basilica which helps contrast different materials in the building. The composition in relation to the building and mountain in the back is just right, making the analogy of the monumental dome and towers of the basilica with the natural monumentality of the snowed Monte Rosa massif in the back.
The photo of the Basilica di Tramonto reflects the contrast between the warmth that surrounds the monument and the background of the snow-covered alps. The monument is important and has been much photographed but the handling of light in this image is particularly interesting.
Eleventh place
Interior view of the Livraria Lello, a bookshop located in Porto. Inaugurated in 1906 by the brothers José Lello and António Lello, who hired engineer Francisco Xavier Esteves, it is one of the oldest bookstores in Portugal.
One of the few pictures from the inside of a monument that is just as impressive as the rest, the picture shows the unique curved design of the staircase of the library framed on the sides with excellent wooden reliefs and shelves displaying a varied number of books. The unusual shape of the staircase shows that libraries are also playful and entertaining places, where people can explore as they explore the books in the library itself.
The Lello bookstore has been widely photographed and perhaps one of the themes that is always highlighted the most is the red staircase, however, few images manage to convey the impact of this photo in which although in the first instance the geometry of the staircase draws visual attention, later the books that surround the image look like paintings and transmit the importance of that heritage. The perfect symmetry of the photo is also a plus point.
Wide perspective of an awe-inspiring interior and staircase.
Twelfth place
Henningsvær fishing village is spread across the islands Heimøya and Hellandsøya and surrounding islets and skerries. This is a listed cultural area with a number of monuments, and in the background, the towering mountains of Austvågøya.
This picture is a gorgeous landscape painting, a useful map of Henningsvær village, and a rich document on how communities living in tough and remote places establish and organize themselves and at the same time are blessed by their beautiful habitat. Unfortunately because of climate warming, places like this will probably be transformed in the following decades and this picture will help preserve this particular scene.
The lens used is appropriate for picturing a big part of the mountain range in the back and even the lower atmosphere. This is a unique picture that few people can take and the author kindly chose to share it on Wikipedia.
The wide perspective and the contrast between the frozen islands and the sea illustrate very well the human settlements and the natural site.
Thirteenth place
Interior of former Kreenholm Manufacturing Company building, situated along the banks of the Narva river. It was founded by Ludwig Knoop in 1857, a cotton merchant from Bremen, Germany. At one point, the company's cotton spinning and manufacturing mills were the largest in the world.
Fourteenth place
It is the triangular area of Venice where the Grand Canal meets the Giudecca Canal, and where three important architectural complexes are located: the church of Santa Maria della Salute, the Patriarchal Seminary of Venice and the Dogana da Mar.
This is one of the pictures on the contest that expresses more strongly an enveloping atmosphere. Although the rest of the scene looks calm, because of the mist and the soft waters, the main subject of the picture standing on the edge of the gondola and tipping it sideways adds the passing of time to the image.
The almost disappearing light also reflected on the water is more than enough to show the contour of the church in the back and the pier with the lighthouse. The rest of the boats along the canal also add life to the image.
The Punta della Dogana is a very crowded and photographed space, however the photography presents another perspective, an almost poetic perspective that transmits the beauty of the space and the melancholy at the same time.
Nice foggy view of Punta della Dogana, which shows a composition with an emphasis on the lagoon (2/3rds of the picture) and the elegant gondola in a diagonal.
Fifteenth place
Circumpolar image of the tower of Santia Castle. It is located on a small elevation on the large plain that extends to the southwest of Erla. The remains that can be seen can be dated to the 14th century, although this castle is already mentioned in documents in 1092 and 1110.
This image not only represents the medieval castle of Santia, but also the essential idea about the meaning of monuments as those creations of culture that stubbornly persist over time and survive the harshness of the elements. The talent of the photographer is evident in having achieved such an attractive image from the few remains that are still standing of this castle in Zaragoza (which by the way is in serious danger of disappearing).
The stars swirling in the background make it seem as if their movement has caused the walls to be ruined and the bricks and stones eroded by their cyclical passage. The image not only reminds us that there is a remote human history of which we know little, but that cosmic time is immense and infinite, even more so than the experience of human beings on earth.
Honorary mentions
[edit]External view of the Christ the King Parish Church, a Catholic temple in Greenmeadows, Quezon City. Construction was completed on 30 June 1988 and it was consecrated on 30 October of the same year. The curved dome of the church rises to 24.3 metres at its highest point.
Although the tower of the church has a modern design as the modern buildings in the background, the picture contrasts with an intense light on the tower and the cross, and between the dark buildings in the background, suggesting the different purposes of daily apartments and office buildings and the Sunday church.
The picture shows that even though contrary to what we might expect about how a beautiful classic church may look like, more modern places of worship can also be impressive. The fact that we only see the top part of all the buildings and not their foundations gives the impression that they are fantastically tall.
A wharf and buildings in Heimsundet sound in the listed fishing village Henningsvær.
It is a very original perspective of these buildings, not only the reflection of them, but the deformed lines and the color management that make it even look like a painting.
Beautiful composition in cold colours with a mirroring effect. It feels cold from here!.
View of the historic Ksar Nalut, situated on the edge of the Nafusa Mountains. Perched at an elevation of 640 meters above sea level, the castle is believed to date back to the 10th or 11th century. It consists of six floors, housing approximately 400 storage units built for preserving grains and olive oil.
The photograph displays clearly the wooden, rock and mud structures that raise the intricate building, demonstrating that its strength has weather the centuries. Recognizing different aesthetics related to monuments is important for the preservation of a diverse culture.
Good colour balance and composition. This view from the ground lets the viewer understand in detail how it is to walk along the old town's streets and the earthen constructive system and the natural shapes of the buildings.
Aerial view of the National Library in Pristina. Kosovo's institutional library was founded in December 1944 in the city of Prizren, but in 1982 the library was moved to the current building, designed by the architect Andrija Mutnjaković.
The photographer demonstrates with this picture how he understood profoundly the essence of the design of the library by reducing the image of the building to its fundamental features. The photograph here is transformed into a carbon sketch of the library, like the architects may have sketched it with a pencil on a white piece of paper when having a moment of inspiration before the library was even constructed.
This picture shows how black and white photography is still a fertile resource to convey ideas and not only a technical limitation the technique had in the past. It is sometimes said that black and white photography makes every picture look good. In this case, the photographer proves that good black and white has its right pertinence on the right moment and has its own unique merit.
Old town of Ghadames from above. UNESCO World Heritage Site in Libya, these houses, crafted from mud and palm wood, are tightly interconnected, resembling beehives. They feature a distinctive architectural style inspired by ancient Amazigh palace designs, constructed vertically.
Here the photographer chose the perfect subject to take an aerial top-down picture that helped him show the beautifully imperfect squares of each house and how the whole group comes together to form this beautiful organic pattern. The late afternoon light is also the correct time of day to accomplish this shot in such a good way because it contrasts the walls of each house and the different tints of earth colors from the mud used to build them.
Not only the buildings but also the palm trees are protagonists of this amazing maze-like landscape. This picture is also very useful because it shows how that community has grown over time and how space has been distributed among families.
Nice orthophoto, showing the balance between trees and human-made constructions.
Rhodes was occupied by the Order of St John of Jerusalem from 1309 to 1523, period during which they transformed the city into a stronghold. The Upper Town is one of the most beautiful urban ensembles of the Gothic period. In the Lower Town, Gothic architecture coexists with mosques, public baths and other buildings dating from the Ottoman period.
Giant seated Buddha statue in Wat Muang, a Buddhist temple in the province of Ang Thong, founded during the Ayutthaya period - around 1690 -. After almost 16 years of construction, the statue was completed on 16 February 2007, and is 93 metres high.
It is the grand congregational mosque of Varamin in the Tehran province. This is one of the oldest buildings of Varamin city. Its construction began during the reign of Sultan Mohammad Khodabaneh and was completed during his son's, Abu Sa'id Bahadur Khan, rule in 1322.
This is a very stunning shot that tells a lot of stories by just looking at it. It has a great composition that helped create depth and perspective in the image. The natural lights help to bring out the tone of the brickwork, also helping to emphasize the details on the wall of the structure. The bird, asides creating an artistic view, help to add live to the image.
It is an ancient monument located in the north eastern part of Hampi, near the banks of the Tungabhadra River. Dedicated to Lord Vitthala, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, the temple dates back to the 15th century and it was built during the reign of King Devaraya II, one of the rulers of the Vijayanagara Empire.
It is a very beautiful photograph of the Hampi Vittala Temple that highlights very well and clearly the complexity and architectural beauty of the monument. The symmetry and contrasts between the sky and the background of the reflection highlight the temple.
It is the minaret of an incomplete mosque in Rabat. It was commissioned by Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur, the third caliph of the Almohad Caliphate, near the end of the 12th century. When al-Mansur died in 1199, construction on the mosque stopped. The minaret was left standing at a height of 44 meters.
Its perfect symmetry and blue sky allow the bricks and their shades show the details of the tower. Also, it emphasises its unfinished/broken condition.
Runners Up
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Cathedral Ruins
Photographer: John Christian Fjellestad
Location: Hamar, Norway -
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Special Awards
[edit]- Un-photographed monuments
- Places of Worship
Acknowledgements
[edit]This competition would not have been possible without the hard work, dedication and enthusiasm of hundreds of volunteers across all participating national competitions, thousands of participants, affiliates, organising teams, and the Wikimedia Foundation. Through affiliates or organised groups and in collaboration with local heritage organisations and volunteers, Wikimedians managed to put together this network of competitions resulting in the 454 images that were considered for the international finale.
Find the images
[edit]All pictures of Wiki Loves Monuments are free for further use, distribution and modification under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 licence. Read more here.
- RANKS 1-25
- Redentor Over Clouds 1.jpg
- Червоний корпус на заході сонця.jpg
- DSC 0548 meteora monastery 2.jpg
- Museum of contemporary art, Belgrade (Музеј савремене уметности Београд).jpg
- 1 Mercado do Bolhão.jpg
- Mellieha Parish Church under a full moon.jpg
- Buksnes church.jpg
- Jutro iznad Avale.jpg
- Hadi Dehghanpour-23.jpg
- La basilica al tramonto.jpg
- Livraria LELLO Porto.jpg
- Henningsvær and the surrounding islands.jpg
- Kreenholmi manufaktuur 2020 02.jpg
- Venezia - Punta della Dogana - 2024-09-24 07-52-02 001.jpg
- Circumpolar over Santia tower.jpg
- Christ the King Parish - Greenmeadows, Quezon City.jpg
- Henningsvær marina buildings.jpg
- Nalut old 20.jpg
- Biblioteka Kombëtare e Kosovës gjatë dimrit e mbuluar me borë.jpg
- بيوت غدامس القديمة من الأعلى.jpg
- MG 6886 Ιπποτών.jpg
- วัดม่วง1.jpg
- Varamin-Grand-Mosque03.jpg
- Hampi Vitthala Temple 3465.jpg
- A couple near Hassan Tower.jpg
- REMAINING FINALIST IMAGES
- Wnętrze z ławkami kościoła św. Andrzeja Boboli w Rawiczu.jpg
- Kaplica św. Jana z Dukli.jpg
- MKr361498 Neiße zwischen Görlitz und Zgorzelec.jpg
- HamarDomen church ruins.jpg
- Ponte D. luís.jpg
- Tabas Messina Castle.jpg
- Bari - Palazzo della Provincia - 2024-09-26 13-09-19 001.jpg
- Kalaja e Porto Palermos nga droni 2 - Shqipëri.jpg
- Bagher Abad castle-3.jpg
- วัดอรุณราชวรารามราชวรมหาวิหาร 2024-3.jpg
- Lighthousse melagavi.jpg
- Expansive photograph captures the Necropolis of Naqsh-e Rustam.jpg
- Old stone Bridge Aziz Aga.jpg
- Pałac w Mosznej - widok od parku.jpg
- Kvitsøy the Lighthouse.jpg
- L'ancienne forteresse Dar El Bahr ou Casa del Mar.jpg
- Arch of Septimius Severus reflection.jpg
- OE7A5109.jpg
- Kalaja e Prizrenit - Kosovë.jpg
- Como - Duomo di Como - 2024-09-01 21-27-34 001.JPG
- Narva Hermanni linnus 2020 01.jpg
- Оперний театр Львівська Національна Опера.jpg
- Viljandi linnusepargi rippsild 2024 01.jpg
- Mellieha Church Fireworks 2024-09-06.jpg
- П'ятницька церква вночі.jpg
- Ta' Pinu Gharb Gozo.jpg