The amateur photographers fixing Wikipedia’s ‘terrible’ pictures

Wikipedia is one of the most visited websites in the world but, by the admission of some of its own volunteer editors, it suffers from a persistent problem – terrible pictures, particularly of celebrities.

It is so full of notable people with very old or unflattering photographs that there are even Instagram accounts dedicated to the very worst ones.

The problem arises because professional photographers who attend, for example, film premieres tend to work for big agencies: their work is copyrighted and you usually need to pay to reproduce it.

Wikipedia – which is largely sustained by volunteers – does not have a budget for that.

Some enthusiasts launched WikiPortraits, a project to recruit a group of volunteer photographers around the world and get them accreditation to attend film festivals, conferences and other events.

“Wikipedia has for the longest time had missing or poor quality photos of people,” said Kevin Payravi, one of the project’s founders.

“This issue has always been in the back of our minds as Wikipedia editors.”

He spoke to the BBC from Austin, Texas where he and fellow founder Jennifer Lee were covering the SXSW festival, complete with their own photo booth for set-up portraits.

“Some people are super bothered by the terrible photos on Wikipedia, and want to save the world from them as well,” Ms Lee said.

“The bad photos are so funny – there are some amazing blobs of humans there.”

Wikipedia has strict rules for photography and copyright, so the pictures uploaded must be a contributor’s own, freely licensable, or in the public domain.

As a result it contains many images added by enthusiasts rather than taken by photographers.

In some cases that merely means a non-descript image – but sometimes they are much worse than that.

A prime example: the comedian Emil Wakim, of Saturday Night Live fame.

For a week last November, the photo above – apparently taken at a stand-up show in New York – was his Wikipedia picture.

When it was removed, an editor noted “having no picture is better than what’s currently there”.

The photo of the English footballer Kyle Bartley, taken in 2011, has also been highlighted by social media users as evidence of Wikipedia’s picture problem.

WikiPortraits started its work at the beginning of 2024.

The photographers are not paid and most are based in the US, but there are volunteers across the world.

Jennifer and Kevin say their photographers tend to be Wikipedia enthusiasts, photography hobbyists, and professionals keen to build their portfolios.

So far, 55 of them have done work for WikiPortraits, or are committed to doing so.

Bryan Berlin is one of the photographers. A high school photography teacher and stand-up comedian from New York, he first got involved with WikiPortraits while he was performing at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

He has attended the New York Film Festival and Sundance, and took pictures of Kieran Culkin and Mikey Madison.

He says he is motivated by improving the service Wikipedia offers.

“Having a better photo of someone gives better information for somebody who is accessing Wikipedia,” he told the BBC.