As I explain in How to Change My Photo on Wikipedia?, the best way to submit a professional portrait photo is to e-mail it along with the form letter included there to the Volunteer Response Team. Wikipedians have not simply taken a photo from your social media profile because only work with a open license can be used in the free encyclopedia.
Do you still need a portrait photo? With 15 years of experience as a Wikipedia photographer, I have been offering this as a service since 2025: I photograph you, publish the result on Wikimedia Commons, and add it to Wikipedia and Wikidata. If you are not yet described on Wikipedia, there is probably no Wikidata item to which this photo can be linked. I will create this item if at least one reliable, publicly available source on you exists.
My standard rate is €80 (incl. VAT) for a short photo session (±30 minutes).
The following travel costs apply:
- No travel costs for photo shoots near The Hague Central, Delft, or Rotterdam Central.
- €35 for locations in Haaglanden or Rotterdam.
- €45 for locations in Utrecht, Amsterdam, Gouda, or Dordrecht.
I consider the Randstad my primary work area.
Book Me as a Wikipedia Photographer!
Send me a message, and let’s explore the possibilities together. You can also reach me via WhatsApp:
Wikipedia Photography at Your Event?
Are you organizing an event where academics, writers, or artists come together? My ambition is to systematically capture people with Wikipedia potential at events. As a volunteer, I have been striving for years to add as many portraits as possible to Wikipedia articles. See, for example, my work at the Rotterdam Film Festival.
If I photograph at your event, this means that I:
- Professionally photograph participants
- Document participants in Wikidata, which functions as Wikipedia’s name registry
- Make your event’s photo wall visible on Wikipedia
My prices take into account the additional Wikidata work surrounding the event.
- €500 (€605 incl. VAT) for a half-day on location + 1 day of post-processing and documentation
- €900 (€1,089 incl. VAT) for a full day on location + 2 days of post-processing and documentation
What Does It Mean to Be Included in Wikidata?
As a Wikipedia photographer, I not only capture people who have a Wikipedia article but also document them in Wikidata. This usually takes me about 15 minutes per person. This sister project functions as Wikipedia’s name registry, where individuals can be included even before an article is created. A photo in Wikidata can inspire Wikipedians to write an article, but there is no guarantee. Data in Wikidata is often indexed by the Google Knowledge Graph, making it visible in search results:
I cannot guarantee that everyone invited can be documented: an item about a living person can only be created if at least one publicly available, reliable source exists.1 I highly recommend not adding yourself to Wikidata. Modeling data correctly has a steep learning curve, and mistakes can lead to the item being deleted – creating extra work for volunteers who maintain the project.
Interested? Contact me!
Send me a message, and let’s explore the possibilities together. You can also reach me via WhatsApp:
Transparency in paid editing
Paid editing is allowed on Wikipedia, provided that full disclosure is made.2 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
- Wikidata:Living people, retrieved 11 March 2025 ↩︎
- Wikimedia Foundation Terms of Use: 4. Refraining from Certain Activities, Wikimedia Foundation (7 June 2023) ↩︎