Latest comment: 2 months ago1 comment1 person in discussion
Hi everyone,
Wikimedia Commons is pleased to finally announce the winners of this year's Picture of the Year 2025 contest! We had some truly incredible finalists to choose from, but the community has spoken.
Here are your top three winning images:
First place: The aftermath of an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on October 9, 2023, leaving widespread destruction in the Rimal area. Attribution: WAFA (Q2915969) / CC-BY-SA 3.0
Second place: Baby cape fur seal (Arctocephalus pusillus) sleeping at Cape cross, Namibia. Attribution: Giles Laurent / CC-BY-SA 4.0
Third place: A gigantic jet photographed from the International Space Station by astronaut Nichole Ayers. Attribution: public domain
You can view the full results and see where all your favorite images placed here: Full 2025 Results
I also want to highlight what an incredible turnout we had. In the second round, we saw a massive jump in both the number of users voting and the total votes cast. We had exactly 13,979 votes cast by 3,509 users! To put that in perspective, last year we had 7,403 votes from 2,837 users. It is amazing to see that level of growth and community engagement.
Thank you to everyone who voted, helped organize, and generally made the contest such a huge success this year!
Latest comment: 1 month ago1 comment1 person in discussion
Dear member of the Commons Photographers User Group,
I hope you’re well and enjoy your time as a photographer on Wikimedia Commons. In my role of the new chair of the user group, I have a couple of updates to share with you.
After the election, the new board met for the first time on March 21 and immediately got to work. We elected the organization’s officers and decided to move from quarterly to monthly board meetings. We believe meeting more frequently will create more opportunities to serve our members effectively and help move the group forward.
We also successfully applied for a pre-conference at the upcoming Wikimania in Paris (July 21–25). If you’re planning to attend the conference, please consider joining us on July 21th for a day full of conversations about photography and Commons. Please sign up here if you’re interested.
And finally, it’s my pleasure to invite you to our first online meeting, which will take place on May 31. Our member Wojciech, an experienced concert photographer, will give a talk on photographing orchestras during live performances. I’m especially excited that we’ll have the opportunity to meet online again and am very much looking forward to this event.
Latest comment: 7 days ago1 comment1 person in discussion
Hello El Grafo,
I want to invite you to participate at our Wikimedia Commons Pre-Conference at the Wikimania in Paris on July 21. If you want to join the pre-conference, please sign up on this page until July 7. Participation at the pre-conference is also possible without a ticket for the Wikimania. If you sign up before the deadline on July 7, you will get free access to the pre-conference day. Unfortunately, online participation will not be possible.
If you have something you want to present or you want to talk about at the pre-conference, please add it here, also until July 7.
There is also a service announcement for all photographers coming to Paris: Unfortunately, France has no freedom of panorama at all. Therefore, Commons does not accept photos of modern buildings, public art or light installations at night. Read more about the problem here.
