SA photograph scoops top prize

WINNER: The overall winner of the Wiki Loves Monument competition titled Women's Memorial Under Rainy Sky. Picture: LEANRI VAN HEERDEN

WINNER: The overall winner of the Wiki Loves Monument competition titled Women's Memorial Under Rainy Sky. Picture: LEANRI VAN HEERDEN

Published Oct 21, 2014

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Cape Town - The winners of this year’s Wiki Loves Monuments photographic competition have been announced after they produced the best quality of images the contest’s organisers have seen so far.

First prize went to Leanri van Heerden, who received a R10 000 voucher from Orms for her dramatic image of the Women’s Memorial in Bloemfontein.

The competition, which started in 2012, invited people from all over the world to submit photographs of “new and fascinating” views of monuments.

It brought in “breathtaking shots” of natural monuments such as Table Mountain and action shots like the firing of the Nine Inch Gun in Simon's Town – the only one of its kind on Wikipedia.

A total of 4 013 South African submissions were received from 94 participants around the country.

This was a decrease from 6 432 last year – but with higher quality of entries, the organisers said.

The global competition received 242 344 submissions from 7 498 participants.

But organisers ran into a hurdle this year and were “deeply disappointed” they could not accept photographs of recently built monuments as planned due to the ambiguous way the Copy Right Act of 1978 was written.

Wikimedia South Africa is aiming to get the law amended.

Recently built monuments, they said, mostly commemorated South Africa’s struggle against apartheid.

Organisers said it was “very unfortunate” that photographs of such important historic places could not be submitted for the competition or used on Wikipedia.

Cape Times

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