How do I change my photo on Wikipedia?

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:

The worst portraits on Wikipedia.
Footage from Comic-Con: Gage Skidmore, CC BY‑SA 3.0

This YouTuber claims that this happens because photos on Wikipedia must be in the public domain. That is not entirely correct: works under a open license may also 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:

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.

For speakers of Dutch, there’s wikiportret.nl to guide you through the process of making a photo available that fits these preconditions. If this is not one of the languages that you speak, I would advise you to contact the Volunteer Response Team directly. As the name suggests, the people responding to your e-mail will be volunteers, so don’t expect a prompt response. This is a very select group of highly trusted members of the community who have signed confidentiality agreements. I am not a member of the VRT.

The person who holds the copyright must give permission. The most straightforward way is for the photographer themselves to provide consent. For vacation snapshots, there is a social norm that if someone takes a picture of you with your own camera, you may publish it. However, to enter into a licensing agreement, simply appearing in a photo is not proof that you hold the rights.

That is why there is a selfie with the Wikipedia monument on my profile page, and the photo taken of me by a woman (who happened to be having lunch nearby) is on my blog. Ideally a photographer would send in a license agreement in the standard format I’ll include below with an email address tied to a portfolio website (i.e., not Gmail or Hotmail). Are you forwarding this email to the VRT? Please include headers.1

Show Email Agreement
Source: Declaration of consent for all enquiries, Wikimedia Commons

Are you in the Netherlands? Hire me!

Would you like a professional headshot? My standard rate is €80 for a short photo session (±30 minutes).2 Upon approval, I will upload the high-resolution photo under a free license on Wikimedia Commons and add it to various Wikipedia language editions.

I am available for location shoots in the Randstad area of the Netherlands. My travel costs are:

  • No travel costs for locations near The Hague Central, Delft, or Rotterdam Central.
  • €35 for locations in The Hague region, Leiden or Rotterdam.
  • €45 for locations in Utrecht, Amsterdam, Gouda, or Dordrecht.

Contact a Wikipedia Photographer!

Send me a message, and we can discuss the possibilities. I am also reachable via WhatsApp:

Chat on WhatsApp

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 it is done transparently.3 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

  1. Iverson, Al Full email headers: What are they and how to access them (Updated for 2024) Spam Resources (31 March 2024) ↩︎
  2. Prices are including 21% BTW (VAT) ↩︎
  3. Wikimedia Foundation Terms of Use: 4. Refraining from Certain Activities, Wikimedia Foundation (7 June 2023)  ↩︎
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