Wiki Loves Monuments: Submit your photos of SA’s monuments to the Wikimedia Commons and you can win Orms vouchers!
Do you enjoy photographing buildings and architecture? Submit your photos of South African listed buildings to Wiki Loves Monuments this coming September, and you can stand a chance to win Orms vouchers!
What is Wiki Loves Monuments?
Wiki Loves Monuments is a photographic competition that invites members of the public to submit photographs of monuments throughout the month of September. All photographs are uploaded through the Wiki Loves Monuments South Africa portal on Wikimedia Commons. All photographs are also donated to the Creative Commons with a standard CC BY-SA 3.0 licence, so everyone in the world can use and enjoy the photographs freely. This is why many of the photographs are often used on Wikipedia.
Pictures can be taken at any time of the year in any year. The only requirement is that they are photographs of monuments in South Africa. A list of Grade I and Grade II buildings can be found here, but any building with heritage status will be accepted. Places that are not already heritage sites, but which are regarded as historically important may also be submitted.
Wiki Loves Monuments began in the Netherlands in September 2010. Over 12,500 photos were entered by more than 250 participants. Due to this huge success, the project was rolled out to 18 European countries in 2011. More than 165,000 pictures of European monuments were entered for the 2011 competition. Last year over 365,000 photographs were submitted globally with 6,432 of them coming from South Africa.
Update: Wiki Loves Monuments 2014 Scavenger Hunt
Join the local Wikimedia community on Sunday 7 September for a scavenger hunt in Cape Town, with the aim to photograph a few monuments and heritage sites around the central city!
Read more about the scavenger hunt.
The Prizes
- First Prize: Vouchers from Orms to the value of R10,000.
- Second Prize: Vouchers from Orms to the value of R6,500.
- Third Prize: Vouchers from Orms to the value of R4,000.
- Best Picture of a Proposed Monument: Vouchers from Orms to the value of R3,000.
- Second Best Picture of a Proposed Monument: Vouchers from Orms to the value of R1,500.
- Best Picture of a monument in the Western Cape: Vouchers from Orms to the value of R4,000. This award is made possible thanks to the generous support of Heritage Western Cape.
- Second Best Picture of a monument in the Western Cape: Vouchers from Orms to the value of R2,000.
Prizes are subject to change.
How To Enter
You can submit any photo of a South African monument, taken at any time. Submissions will be open during the month of September, and all photos need to be uploaded to Wiki Loves Monuments South Africa.
- Visit the Wiki Loves Monuments South Africa website.
- Select the “Enter your Photo” button on the main page.
- Create an account on Wikimedia Commons.
- Upload your photos.
- Add the SAHRA number of the building or site, or if it is a proposed monument, just add “New”.
- Be sure to add any additional information you might have about the location in the photograph.
To help you in your search, here’s a list of monuments in South Africa, sorted by province, and you can view previous winners from South Africa and Internationally.
Update: New Information Regarding Potential Copyright Issues
It appears that a very obscure clause of the South African Copyright Act, known as “Freedom of Panorama”, will cause some issues with photos of recently constructed monuments. Please read this article for more information
Suggested Listed Monuments
These locations are all listed grade I and II monuments in South Africa. You can see a list of other monuments nearby by clicking on their respective links.
- Table Mountain, Cape Town. SAHRA code: 9/2/018/0022
- Muizenberg Railway Station, Main Road, Muizenberg, Cape Town. SAHRA code: 9/2/081/0031
- Oak trees, Dorp Street and The Avenue, Stellenbosch. SAHRA code: 9/2/084/0001-026
- Tokai Arboretum, Tokai Forest, Tokai, Cape Town. SAHRA code: 9/2/111/0017
- Jonkershuis, Non Pareille, Daljosafat, Paarl District, Western Cape. SAHRA code: 9/2/069/0001/002-03
- Johannesburg City Hall Complex, Rissik Street, Johannesburg. SAHRA code: 9/2/228/0068
- Old High Court of Griqualand West, Southey Street, Kimberley, Northern Cape. SAHRA code: 9/2/049/0011
- Fort Murray, Zwelitsha District, Eastern Cape. SAHRA code: 4/K/King/1
- St James Church, 35 Somerset Street, Graaff-Reinet, Eastern Cape. SAHRA code: 9/2/033/0016
Suggested Unlisted Monuments
These locations are unlisted but are monuments to important historical events in South African history.
- The Trojan Horse Memorial, Athlone, Cape Town
- Gugulethu Seven Memorial, Gugulethu, Cape Town
- Nelson Mandela Capture Site, Howick, KwaZulu-Natal.
- Orlando Power Station, Soweto, Gauteng.
- Hector Pieterson Memorial, Orlando West, Soweto, Gauteng.
Here’s a few winning photos from last year, and some photos of the Wiki Loves Monuments exhibition at Friends of Design.
Above: “Valley of Desolation, Graaff Reinet District” by Leo za1
Above: “Arthur Nathan Swimming Pool, Fairview Street, Bloemfontein” by Leanri van Heerden
Above: “Wine cellar, South end gable” by Chris Snelling
Above: “Cape Recife forms the end point of the sweeping curve of Algoa Bay. Tne lighthouse is a 24 metre high octagonal masonry structure built in 1851 for alerting ships entering and exiting Algoa Bay of shallow reefs.” by Suzi-k
