Commons:Wiki Loves Africa 2017/photo essay

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2017 Photo essays winners : Commons:Wiki Loves Africa 2017/Winners

For Wiki Loves Africa 2017, we want photographers to be able to tell the whole story. Not to just capture one or two images, but a series of images that encapsulate their interpretation of the theme.

Photo essays allow for the photographer, and (through their photographs) the viewer, to explore the full range of activities, ideas, and concepts encapsulated in one subject. In this context, and taking into account the Wiki Loves Africa 2017 theme of People at Work - with special focuses on Working Women and Rare, Fading or Threatened Traditional Craft, Styles or Ways of Working – a photo essay could be a series of people at the same occupation but in different contexts, or several people of a similar group doing different work, or a montage of images that explores one person going through the process of working, or a montage of images that explores a women-related professional issue.

There is a prize specifically for the best group of photographs by one photographer that captures an aspect of the theme.

How do you show that your images are part of a photo essay?
When uploading your photos to the Wiki Loves Africa competition using the Upload Wizard, please make sure that the photos are numbered sequentially - for example:

  • Kisra Maker, Sudan Photo 1
  • Kisra Maker, Sudan Photo 2
  • Kisra Maker, Sudan Photo 3, etc.

Using google slides or another presentation method is not compatible with the licences that Commons use, unless you download or save the photo essay as a pdf and then submit the pdf to the competition.

How to tag a collection of photo as photo essay ?[edit]

  • Create a page with a title such as [[Commons:Wiki Loves Africa 2017/photo essay/foo]] (with foo being your specific title)
  • Add the category [[Category:Photo essay from Wiki Loves Africa 2017]] to that page

List your page below

What is a photo essay?[edit]

A photo-essay is a set or series of photographs that are made to create series of emotions in the viewer. A photo essay will often show pictures in deep emotional stages. Photo essays range from purely photographic works to photographs with captions or small comments to full text essays illustrated with photographs.

Examples of photo essays include:

  • An article in a publication, sometimes a full page or a two-page spread
  • A book or other complete publication.
  • A web page or portion of a web site.
  • A single montage or en:collage of photographic images, with text or other additions, intended to be viewed both as a whole and as individual photographs. Such a work may also fall in the category of en:mixed media.
  • An en:art show which is staged at a particular time and location. Some such shows also fall into other categories category.
  • In en:fashion publishing especially, a photo-editorial – an editorial-style article dominated by or entirely consisting of a series of thematic photographs


What we would be looking for[edit]

Within the theme of People at Work, we would be looking for photo-essays within either of those two sub-themes

  • Working Women or
  • Rare, Fading or Threatened Traditional Craft, Styles or Ways of Working

A photo essay could be

  • a series of people at the same occupation but in different contexts example, or
  • several people of a similar group doing different work, example1 or example2
  • a montage of images that explores one person going through the process of working example or
  • a montage of images that explores a women-related professional issue example

The photo essay could be either

  • a collection of photos with brief but descriptive legend for each photo example 1;
  • a more wordy narrative with illustrative photos example 1; example 2

The photo essay may be proposed

  • by one person or a group of people

We are aware that a photo-essay requires a significant amount of time and energy, but we think this approach could be a wonderful communication tool on the above listed topics. The photo-essay could be hosted not only in a Commons page, but also posted on a blog (such as the Wikimedia Foundation blog). A good photo-essay about working women could be relayed within the Wiki Loves Women network. A good photo-essay about Rare, Fading or Threatened Traditional Craft, Styles or Ways of Working would be likely to be relayed by Unesco. A good photo-essay could be published in a photo exhibition, during Wikimania 2018 in Cap Town or beyond.
If you are interested in submitting a photo-essay, do not hesitate to get in touch with us. We (the central team or the local teams) can probably help with the narrative.

Examples to get inspired[edit]

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