Commons:Wiki Loves Africa 2021/jury
Wiki Loves Africa’s Winner selection process
The Jury process for the Wiki Loves Africa competition is elaborate and complex, as with all international photographic competitions. The process is sectioned into the efforts that are explained below. Please note that there are two separate, unrelated judging elements 1. the national juries, and 2. the international jury. The national juries select images from their country categories to review and reward. The international jury process is entirely separate, with all images being reviewed, and a select few making the short list and final cut. We do not rely on the national teams or juries for their selections. This is intentional and due to the fact that not every country that contributes has a national team or jury process.
- Image Checking
- First, there is an initial effort during the competition timeframe and the month after to ensure that all images are categorised properly and are vetted for copyvios and other issues. This process is undertaken by a few dedicated and tireless Wikimedia Commons contributors who are incredible (thank you GuillaumeG, Anthere, Ceslause and Ji-Elle). You can see the range of the work at this year's Image checking page.
National jury process
National organising teams select their own juries. Guidance with regards to this process is supplied in the National Judging Charter, however the management and organisation - and final results - are entirely independent of the International team. You can view the national winners here.
International Jury process
This year’s jury was compiled and arranged by Isla Haddow-Flood, with Ceslause assisting. The process is conducted on Montage and has two specific sequential parts.
- First Review Team
- Once the images have all been checked, a call is put out to the Wiki Loves Africa organising community and on Wikimedia Commons for volunteers to do a first pass. As over 80% of contributors to the competition are new Wikimedians, a wide variety of images that are uploaded are not suitable or eligible for the contest. These range from not being relevant to the theme to selfies (we’ve had CVs and certificates uploaded!) and everything in between. The first review team this year amounted to 22 reviewers, the list is below.
- International Jury Team
- For the International Jury this year we have been cognisant of bringing together a team that honours the range of diversity that we value as a project. A balance was sought between several sometimes-conflicting criteria: Wikimedia Commons contributors and professionals, Africa-based and global, male or female. This year, we feel that the balance has been found. We are grateful to all the members, new and experienced, for bringing their expert eyes to choose the best of the best.
International jury
The international jury is a made up of professional photographers and committed Wikimedia Commons contributors. This year's jury was compiled and arranged by Isla Haddow-Flood, with Ceslause assisting.
| Juror | Biography |
Photo |
|---|---|---|
| Akena Hillen, Uganda | Akena Hillen is a photographer and filmmaker with extensive experience and management skills. He is best known for starting and running his media brand Histovic Studios that deals in professional photography and film production for personal and public consumption. He has worked for government organizations and individuals in a series of projects. He graduated from Makerere University Kampala Uganda with a bachelors degree in Drama and Film in 2019. He is currently building new skills in computer science and software development. Akena's website can be found here: https://about.me/akenahillen | |
| Anas Adam, Nigeria | Anas Adam is an entrepreneur, expert photographer and a student of architectural technology from Kadpoly Affiliated to Ahmadu Bello University, He's a co-founder of Nigerian Commons Photographers User Group an an administrator in Hausa Wikipedia. He focuses on recording audio and snapping pictures to document Nigerian History and culture, especially Hausa Language and Northern Nigeria, as he believes that up to now Nigeria is not well documented. |  |
| Benoît Prieur, France | Benoît Prieur has been a Wikimedian for over 10 years. He loves contributing to Wikimedia Commons and taking a lot of photos :). Professionally he's a computer engineer and writes technical books about programming. | .jpg) |
| Michael Maggs, United Kingdom | Michael Maggs is a photographer, a former chair of Wikimedia UK and a former bureaucrat on Commons. In 2013 he set up the Wiki Loves Monuments contest in the UK, and led the UK efforts to 2019. Michael's contributions to Commons can be found here. |  |
| Miriam Nwosah, Nigeria | Miriam Nwosah is the Creative Director and Digital Marketer at Webizza Studio, a creative digital marketing agency which she founded in 2017. One of their notable works is a stop motion video advert for Bata Shoes. She's a self-taught graphics designer, photographer, videographer, website designer and visual artist. As an Ebonylife Creative Academy Alumni, she is a certified Art Director, her final project, a short film titled Monitoring Spirit, earned the highest number of awards including Best picture.
She holds a Master’s degree in International Business and Finance from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. She worked in the corporate world for a couple of years, first as a financial analyst at UBS Investment Bank in New Jersey and then Equiniti Group in London before she returned to Nigeria and worked as an account officer at Kakatar Group. She is the founder of “We The Youths Africa”, a nonprofit organisation with a platform that supports African creatives for positive change. You can view some of her works here |
|
| Musa Umar, Nigeria | Musa Umar is a graduate of mass communication degree from Hassan Usman Katsina Polytechnic. He's a co-founder of Nigerian Commons Photographers User Group. He's a photographer with mostly light skills and composure. He has more experience in in-depth pictures, action pictures and pictures that tell stories. He believes pictures tell stories better! |  |
| Otsile Moutswi, Botswana | Otsile Moutswi is a Business Computing graduate and a self taught videographer and a photographer based in Gaborone, Botswana. He has been a professional corporate and event photographer for over four years with the goal to capture moments that inspire and tell a story. During his years in the creative space, he has sharpened his technical and aesthetic skills and has come to love bringing smiles from people. You can find his work at Lensman Media on Facebook and Lensman Media on YouTube. | |
| Nene Fembe, Cameroon | Nene Fembe is a photographer, camera operator, and cinematographer from Cameroon. She has been a photographer since 2016 and has worked on many different projects from music events coverage, weddings, birthdays, football matches, seminars, and film projects like "Broken" presently on Netflix etc. She took up photography because she feels like it is a powerful tool in telling stories and freezing moment to be relived, enjoyed and appreciated later. Check out her works on Instagram. | |
| Nicky Newman, South Africa | Nicky Newman is a photographer and documentary filmmaker who studied Journalism & Media and Psychology at Rhodes University in the late 1980s. She established a documentary production company, See Thru Media, producing, directing, shooting, and editing award-winning documentary films for the broadcast industry and developmental sector for over 20 years with a focus on arts and culture. Newman is focusing on stills photography, was a finalist in the Hopper Art Prize 2020, and shortlisted for the Zeiss Photography Award in 2017. She is working on her first photography book, developing a number of new photographic bodies of work, is completing a feature length documentary on theatre playwright and director Brett Bailey, and is currently completing the RMB Talent Unlocked program for artists for 2021. Nicky's website can be found here. | |
| Sebastiaan Ter-Burg, the Netherlands | Sebastiaan Ter-Burg is a photographer and videographer that releases most of content under a CC BY license through Flickr and Vimeo. Some of that material is available on Wikimedia Commons. He worked as a project manager cultural cooperation at Wikimedia Nederland from February 2013 until April 2015. Sebastiaan's work can be found on his Flickr channel. |  |
| Wilfredo Rodríguez, Venezuela, Brazil, Canada | Wilfredo Rodríguez is from Venezuela and Brazil, but currently lives in Quebec, Canada. Rodríguez joined the Wikimedia movement over a decade ago, during which time he has contributed over 40,000 images (many of them Quality Images or Featured Images) to Wikimedia Commons. His photos have been displayed in some of the world’s largest exhibitions. More about his journey as a Commonist can be found at this Diff article. |  |
| Yazeed Kamaldien, South Africa | Yazeed Kamaldien is a freelance journalist and photographer living and working in Cape Town, South Africa. His work interests are varied, but mostly concentrated on social documentary as this allows him to see and capture life in this world through his lens. This current exhibition is a body of work that will continue to grow as time passes. Yazeed's website is yazkam.wordpress.com |  |
First review 2021
This year, we again asked the community to participate in a clean up of the images submitted to Wiki Loves Africa 2021. The community members who participated were:
- User:Ala Ef
- User:.Anja.
- User:Anthere
- User:Bile rene
- User:Ceslause
- User:Chicocvenancio
- User:DarwIn
- User:FaithMwanyolo
- User:Fawaz.tairou
- User:Islahaddow
- User:Kitanago
- User:M-Mustapha
- User:Magotech
- User:Mah3110
- User:Mrbobax
- User:Onyinyeonuoha
- User:Rachad sanoussi
- User:Serieminou
- User:Shoodho
- User:Spinster
- User:Summering2018
- User:Wilfredor
This First Review round is to reduce submitted images to a manageable number for a more in-depth selection by the international jury. The First Review Team chose yes (to keep) or no (to drop) each image assigned to them according to the following criteria:
- Images must be relevant to the theme.
- The obvious quality of the image - is it obviously blurred, pixellated, etc.
- The deletion of any selfies, very small images or blurred and unclear works.
Thank you so much for their work on this first round!