For years, I have been photographing at the International Film Festival Rotterdam for Wikipedia. This year, I had the opportunity to capture Hollywood actress Victoria Pedretti, whose Wikipedia article lacked a photo in 29 language editions. This marks the third consecutive year that I could add a great photo to my portfolio:
That wasn’t always the case. The oldest IFFR photo of mine found on Wikipedia is of Chilean actress Paola Lattus, taken in 2012 with my Samsung S2. Since 2015, I have been accredited as a press photographer for the festival with the support of Wikimedia Netherlands. Below is an overview of my impact on Wikipedia:
Audio Recordings of the Stars
These are not just photos: occasionally, I also made recordings for the Wikipedia Voice Intro Project, allowing readers to hear how someone sounds and pronounces their name. The article about documentary filmmaker Mark Cousins is a good example of this. Many people will recognize him more quickly by his Northern Irish accent in my recording than by my photo, as he is usually heard as a voice-over in his work and rarely appears on screen. The most widely used piece of media is a recording of director Edmund Yeo introducing himself in his native language. In 37 language versions, it serves as the example of Malaysian Mandarin — an application I had not foreseen.
A Wikipedia photo booth at IFFR next year?
For IFFR, I have proposed documenting CineMart participants for a fee. This is the part of the festival where new filmmakers pitch their projects to investors. I see this as a win-win-win: Wikipedia gains quality images and data on a diverse group of up-and-coming film talent, IFFR increases the visibility of their photo wall, and I receive more than just a name credit and expense reimbursement.
Hire me as a Wikipedia photographer for your event
Are you organizing an event with academics, writers, or artists? I can photograph them on-site and document them in Wikidata.
- €500 (€605 incl. VAT) for a half-day on-site + 1 day post-processing and documentation
- €900 (€1,089 incl. VAT) for a full day on-site + 2 days post-processing and documentation
Interested? Use my contact form. I am also reachable on WhatsApp:
As a Wikipedia photographer, I not only capture people who have a Wikipedia article, but I also document them in Wikidata. This usually takes me about fifteen minutes per person. This sister project functions as the name registry of the Wikimedia projects, where someone can also be included before an article is created. A photo in Wikidata can serve as an incentive for Wikipedians to write an article, but there is no guarantee that this will happen. The data in Wikidata is often indexed by the Google Knowledge Graph, making it visible in search results:
I cannot guarantee that everyone who is invited can be documented: before an item about a living person can be created, there must be a reliable, public source.2 Outside the Randstad, I charge an additional fee to be agreed upon.
Transparency in Paid Editing
Paid editing is allowed on Wikipedia, as long as there is full disclosure.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.
Note: I do not write Wikipedia articles about living persons for payment. While allowed under strict conditions, the paid article market is filled with non-transparent actors. I choose not to engage in this.
Footnotes
- Category:International Film Festival Rotterdam, GLAMorous; retrieved February 2025 ↩︎
- Wikidata:Living people, retrieved 11 March 2025 ↩︎
- Wikimedia Foundation Terms of Use: 4. Refraining from Certain Activities, Wikimedia Foundation (7 June 2023) ↩︎
