Wikimedia CH/Grant apply/WikiPortraits 2026 Switzerland Event Coverage

Infodata

• Name of the project: WikiPortraits 2026 Switzerland Event Coverage
• Amount requested: 23,500 CHF
• Type of grantee: Organization
• Name of the contact: Kevin Payravi & Jennifer 8. Lee
• Contact: kevinwikiportraits.org, jennywikiportraits.org

The problem and the context

What is the problem you're trying to solve?

Biographical and cultural event coverage on Wikimedia projects often lack high-quality media, especially for emerging and underrepresented figures in various industries including arts, music, film, and academia. Many notable or soon-to-be-notable individuals are photographed at events, but by proprietary outlets whose media is not usable by Wikimedia projects. As a result, Wikipedia articles about people and events often rely on low-resolution or outdated photos, or lack a photo entirely.

There have been efforts by Wikimedia communities and individuals over the years to help address this, particularly by sending wiki photographs to events, ideally as credentialed media. A few notable examples from Wikimedia affiliates include Wikimedia Deutschland's Festivalsommer and Landtagsprojekt projects, as well as Wikimedia Ghana User Group's 500 Notable People Photo Project and coverage of the African Games. WikiPortraits was created to build upon these efforts on a more global scale, filling in gaps in coverage and building an international network of volunteer wiki photographers who can support one another.

What is your solution to this problem (please explain the context and the solution)?

WikiPortraits is a global initiative that sends volunteer photographers to major and local cultural events to create and upload high-quality, freely licensed portraits of notable and emerging public figures. Since launching in January 2024, our photographers have contributed portraits from dozens of events across multiple continents, from film festivals to pride events, from tech conferences to literature festivals.

At this point we estimate that 1 out of every 200 pageviews globally is illustrated by a WikiPortraits photo; with some months having a higher ratio due to events as the Oscars and the appointment of a new pope.

This coverage has been supported by funding from the Wikimedia Foundation, various Wikimedia affiliates, and private donations.

A history of our global work and coverage can be viewed through these links:

• 2024 report
• WikiPortraits event coverage on Commons
• Photographers Are on a Mission to Fix Wikipedia's Famously Bad Celebrity Portraits — 404media, March 10, 2025
• Amateur photographers hope to fix Wikipedia's 'terrible' pictures — BBC, March 29, 2025
• Der Text ist top, das Bild ein Blob — Die Zeit, June 24, 2025

This proposal builds on that global work with a focus on our 2026 activities in Switzerland.

Event coverage

Since late 2024, WikiPortraits has received several WMCH grants that helped us build momentum in Switzerland:

• WikiCommons Gallery Showcase by WikiPortraits, a project to build Commons Gallery, to allow WikiPortraits and Wikimedia Commons photographers to build rich, sharable portfolios of their work.
• WikiPortraits at Art Basel Switzerland 2025
• WikiPortraits at Locarno Film Festival 2025
• WikiPortraits at 2025 Eurovision

These grants have helped us build a foothold with photography in Switzerland. We succesfully accredited to multiple international events, grew our network of photographers (we now have four active Swiss contributors, including two professionals), and expanded Wikimedia's media coverage of these events. One of our Swiss photographers has since covered the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2025 with WikiPortraits and credentialled with various Zurich cultural events independently, showing the long-term potential of this engagement approach.

In 2026, we want to bring these efforts together into this one coordinated grant ask. We plan to cover key Swiss cultural events, including Art Basel, the Locarno Film Festival, the Montreux Jazz Festival, United Nations events in Geneva, among other local and global events. As part of this, we will also continue to recruit and mentor new Swiss photographers. This will help us work more efficiently, support contributors year-round, and make Wikimedia CH a core partner as we build a lasting WikiPortraits presence in Switzerland.

Gallery

Below is a gallery of select photos from our 2025 Switzerland event coverage, as a sampling of what our past event coverage has looked like.

Eurovision 2025

See commons:Category:WikiPortraits_at_2025_Eurovision

As of September 17, 2025:

• 1,063 photos
• Used on 47 language editions of Wikipedia
• Used across 849 distinct Wikipedia articles
• 294 articles illustrated for the first time
• 76 Wikidata items illustrated for the first time

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Art Basel 2025

See commons:Category:WikiPortraits_at_2025_Art_Basel

As of September 17, 2025:

• 465 photos
• Used on 11 language editions of Wikipedia
• Used across 28 distinct Wikipedia articles
• 13 articles illustrated for the first time
• 25+ new articles on English Wikipedia
• 5 Wikidata items illustrated for the first time
• Note: we plan to do a significant Wikidata push with the galleries whose booths we took photos of. But it is part of the WikiPortraits backlog.

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Locarno Film Festival 2025

See commons:Category:WikiPortraits_at_2025_Locarno_Film_Festival

As of September 17, 2025:

• 943 photos
• Used on 56 language editions of Wikipedia
• Used across 160 distinct Wikipedia articles
• 49 articles illustrated for the first time
• 17 Wikidata items illustrated for the first time

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Project goals

• Improve the visual coverage of notable and emerging public figures on Wikipedia, Wikidata, and Wikimedia Commons.
• Provide more equitable representation of artists, cultural figures, and leaders, particularly from underrepresented backgrounds.
• Expand our network of contributing photographers and Wikimedia affiliate partners, particularly in Switzerland.

Project impact

How will you know if you have met your goals?

For our event and people coverage, we aim to achieve the following:

• Expand the events we cover in Switzerland in 2026.
• Significant number of photos of notable people added to articles on multiple language wikis where there weren't existing photos before.
• Significant portion of coverage is of people from underrepresented backgrounds.
• Keeping our existing Swiss WikiPortraits photographers engaged and active.
• Finding and onboarding more photographers in Switzerland and the surrounding region.

Do you have any goals or metrics around participation or content?

WikiPortraits keeps track of our on-Wiki impact through the useful GLAMorgan tool (link), which tracks the total views of photos that appear on articles in any given category. It also gives the popularity of photos on which Wikis, and the aggregate number of photos per language Wiki. We also have our own homegrown WikiPortraits CLI, which allows us to do a deep-dive into how our photos have been used across Wikimedia projects (how many photos were first-time additions, how many photos were added to Wikipedia vs. pulled from Wikidata, etc.)

Through our regular use of these tools, we know that WikiPortraits photos have been used on more than 150 language Wikis and have been viewed upwards of 100 million times per month, with spikes on big cultural events such as the Oscars, the announcement of the new pope, and Eurovision.

Project plan

Activities

• Cover major events in Switzerland such as Art Basel, Locarno Film Festival, Montreux Jazz Festival, UN conferences in Geneva, and other major events to photograph notable and emerging figures.
• Continue developing our communications and outreach strategies to highlight our work and attract new collaborators.

Budget

• Event coverage (travel, lodging, accreditation, gear rental, metadata, etc.): 15,500 CHF (this includes Art Basel, Locarno Film Festival, Montreux Jazz Festival, and ideally UN conferences in Geneva)
• Communications, outreach, and social media: 3,000 CHF
• Community management and contributor support: 2,500 CHF
• Administrative Time Costs (accounting, reimbursement, logistics): 2,500CHF

Community engagement

We will collaborate with Wikimedia CH and other affiliates to credential and support photographers covering events in Switzerland, building on the federated model we have been building through 2025.

We will share our photos and impact stories regularly through Wikimedia platforms and social media.