WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

I might be a bit late to the party on this one, but I’ve recently discovered the brilliance of Wikimedia Commons.

This is a free, online resource that serves as a central location for photos, diagrams, maps and much more.

It works by contributors uploading files, which must be freely licensed or in the public domain.

Volunteers then review and categorise the content, and anyone can access the files and use them according to their licensing terms.

If you are looking for a particular image, you can search under different categories ranging from, for example, Architecture to Science; Nature to Historical Events; Famous People to Geographic Locations.

The files are then licensed as either ‘Public Domain’ or via ‘Creative Commons Attribution.’ This means that the files can be downloaded and used commercially, as long as proper attribution is given. An information box for each image gives details of where the files have come from.

Wikimedia Commons is excellent if you are looking for a specific image for a website or a newsletter that you don’t have on your own camera roll, giving access to people and places around the world.  

There are no subscriptions, and anyone can download from it. As all the uploads come from volunteers, the image quality may not always be the same as professional-grade photography, but they are still very usable.

Perhaps the biggest achievement of Wikimedia Commons is that it highlights the power of collaboration. Thousands of volunteers, photographers and researchers have contributed these not-for-profit resources, and the information is available to anyone.

Here’s the link if you want to discover more: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page