It is almost legendary that the photo at the beginning of a biographical Wikipedia article is not always the most flattering. See, for example, this compilation:
That is because only work that has an open license or is in the public domain may be used. This means the author has entered into an irreversible licensing agreement, granting permission for the distribution of the work—including for commercial purposes—usually only under the condition that proper attribution is provided.
Within the free knowledge movement, which Wikipedia is a major part of, the standard set of licenses comes from Creative Commons. There are three Creative Commons licenses that are open:
- Creative Commons Zero – the work is released into the public domain.
- Creative Commons Attribution – the user must credit the author, provide a link to the license, and indicate if any changes were made.
- Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike – in addition, if you remix, modify, or build upon the work, you must distribute the new material under the same license.
If you follow the links to these licenses, you’ll find some additional fine print (regarding privacy laws and a prohibition on digital rights management, for instance), but these are the core conditions. Strictly speaking, every publication of a work should include its license. This way, each individual publication becomes a new source of free knowledge in itself.
Wikipedians often get pushback when it’s explained that it is not possible to make a photo available only for use on Wikipedia or to exclude commercial use. Wikipedia itself is non-commercial, but the Wikimedia projects aim to make all human knowledge as accessible as possible. For this reason, the Wikipedia community has chosen not to accept these restrictions. This does not mean the photo can be used in advertisements. Personality rights offer protection against this.
One example of commercial reuse of a photo I took for Wikipedia is this news article from NL Times which announces the death of Robin Fransman. You’ll see my name in the photo credit and a clear reference to the photo’s license. Unlike Wikipedia, NL Times runs advertisements, which makes it a commercial publication.
Unprofessional photos are often previously unpublished, and their limited commercial value tends to raise fewer questions about authorship. The photos above could have been uploaded by a new account or submitted from a Gmail address using the standard email declaration below.
Sending in a professional photo?
If you want to submit a professional photo, it’s best to have the photographer or organization send it directly to the volunteers of the Wikipedia Volunteer Response Team (VRT), using the standard email declaration below.
Please use an email address linked to your own domain (rather than Gmail or Hotmail). This helps the volunteers verify the authenticity of the submission more easily.
The VRT is managed by a small, highly trusted group of volunteers who have signed a confidentiality agreement. They handle each request with care, but since they do this in their free time, it may take a while before you receive a response. I am not part of the VRT and do not have direct access to their correspondence.
Show Email Agreement
To: permissions-commons [at] wikimedia [dot] org
I hereby affirm that I choose one: [am name] or [represent copyright holder’s name], the choose one: [creator] or [sole owner] of the exclusive copyright of the attached work and have legal authority in my capacity to release the copyright of that work.
I agree to publish the above-mentioned content under the following open license: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International.
I acknowledge that by doing so I grant anyone the right to use the work, even in a commercial product or otherwise, and to modify it according to their needs, provided that they abide by the terms of the license and any other applicable laws.
I am aware that this agreement is not limited to Wikipedia or related sites.
I am aware that the copyright holder always retains ownership of the copyright as well as the right to be attributed in accordance with the license chosen. Modifications others make to the work will not be claimed to have been made by the copyright holder.
I acknowledge that I cannot withdraw this agreement, and that the content may or may not be kept permanently on a Wikimedia project.
[Sender’s name]
[Sender’s authority (if applicable. E.g. “Copyright holder”, “Director”, “Appointed representative of”, etc.)]
[Date]
Are you in the Netherlands? Hire me!
I take professional portraits that meet Wikipedia’s licensing requirements. For €40 (incl. VAT), I’ll do a short photo session (±30 minutes) and upload the result to Wikipedia under a free license.
We’ll meet at a location in the Randstad region — your home, workplace, or an outdoor setting. I don’t use a studio; just natural light or whatever is available on site. You can schedule an appointment via email or WhatsApp.
This is a commercial service that complements the volunteer work of the VRT. My account is already verified, so you won’t be creating extra work for the volunteers. The setup is still a bit experimental — but you’ll have the peace of mind that the license is handled correctly.
Who am I?
I’ve been a volunteer within Wikimedia projects since 2010 and have chosen to specialize in editing the visual aspects of Wikipedia’s content – both by creating my own photographs and by transferring large sets of images from other sources. For this work, the Dutch Wikipedia community has awarded me with the WikiOwl in the “Illustration” category twice (2019 and 2023). My personal favorites are the three on display here. You can see more of my work in my portfolio.
Transparency About Paid Editing
On Wikipedia, paid editing is allowed, provided there is full disclosure.1 To meet this requirement, I have created a second account under my full name. The connection between this domain and that account, as well as my registration with the Chamber of Commerce, has been authenticated in VRT ticket #2025012210005101 and documented in the Wikidata item Q131845295.
Footnotes
- Wikimedia Foundation Terms of Use: 4. Refraining from Certain Activities, Wikimedia Foundation (7 June 2023) ↩︎
Photo attributions
- Edward Furlong photo by Miguel Discart via Flickr.com, CC BY‑SA 2.0
- Beverly D’Angelo photo by The Drama League via Flickr.com, CC BY 2.0
- Bobby Flay Green photo by Larkworb via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY‑SA 3.0
- Tanith Lee photo by Danie Ware via Flickr.com, CC BY 2.0
- Elizabeth Witmer photo by Markbellis via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY‑SA 4.0
- Skyler Gisondo photo by Erik Drost via Flickr.com, CC BY 2.0
- Naomi Klein photo by Vera de Kok, CC BY‑SA 4.0
- Judit Elek photo by Vera de Kok, CC BY‑SA 4.0
- Lois Smith photo by Vera de Kok, CC BY‑SA 4.0
