Would you like to go for a walk together and take photographs for Wiki Loves Monuments?

During a Wiki Loves Monuments photowalk you will see local cultural heritage sites and photograph them. You will also get to know Wiki Loves Monuments, the biggest photo competition in the world, and be able to participate in it with photos taken during the walk. The walk will have a guide who is familiar with the history of the area. These photowalks are part of the European Heritage Days programme.

Instructions for organising your own Wiki Loves Monuments photowalk

You can organise your own photowalk, whether you’re the representative of an organisation, hobby group or group of friends.

Why organise a photowalk?: The aim of the walks is to create friendly meetings around photography, spread information on the significance of cultural heritage as well as Wiki Loves Monuments competition and to encourage people to participate in it. Shared and active experiences (like a photowalk) might make it easier for people to participate in the competition.

Timing: You can send photos to Wiki Loves Monuments during September. Therefore it’s a good idea to have the walk during September or even already in August.

Target audience: Everyone is welcome to participate in Wiki Loves Monuments! The idea of the competition is to document cultural heritage but the winning images are often of high technical quality and visually atmospheric or creative. Therefore the competition will work for both photography enthusiasts and participants interested in documenting heritage.

Route: The walking route leads from a cultural heritage site to another. The sites can be chosen using the map of the competition. The route can be created within the closest local area or in a historically interesting neighbourhood, but it can also be planned thematically (according to e.g architecture of a decade). A bicycle route is also an option.

Number of participants: The number of people participating is mainly dependent on the physical circumstances of the walk (is there space for a larger crowd to walk in). The Wikimedia Finland photowalks usually have a maximum of 20 participants.

Duration: We recommend 1-2 hour photowalks but it depends on the participants.

Timetable: It’s good to have a short talk in the beginning of the walk, with the purpose of explaining the aim and rules of the competition. As the walk contains photography activities and discussions, the pace of the event will vary according to the group. Some will need more time for taking photos than others. We recommend you plan a flexible schedule and have an extra site as a backup. Towards the end of the walk (or in the beginning) it’s good to go through together the process of registration to Wikimedia Commons and how to upload photos. Both are easily done via the link “Send photos!”.

Suggestions for talk topics: The main idea and rules of Wiki Loves Monuments. The significance of documenting cultural heritage. Photographs from the previous years’ finnish and international competitions. It’s also important that the participants know and understand that the photos sent to the competition can be downloaded and utilised by all users, within the limits of the Creative Commons BY-SA licence.

Communication: The European Heritage Days in Finland is a partner of Wiki Loves Monuments this year and will be happy to publish information on WLM walks in their calendar of events. We also recommend the use of hashtags #wlmSuomi and #wikilovesmonuments in social media posts.

Why participate in Wiki Loves Monuments?: Participation is valuable, as every image sent to the competition will develop further the shared story and collection of our cultural heritage. It is a project of collecting information, where anyone can participate in the project of recording history, from their unique point of view. The photographs of Wiki Loves Monuments are important sources of knowledge to many kinds of users through Wikimedia Commons. The images document the changing landscape: today is tomorrow’s history. That is why the competition is often organised in co-operation with for example museums.

Please contact us if you have any questions about organising a WLM photo walk! We would also be happy to hear if you decide to organise a walk and can communicate about it on our website.