[Commons-l] [Wikinews-l] Accredited photographer status?

[K P]

On 5/3/07, David Monniaux <David.Monniaux at free.fr> wrote:
>
> K P a écrit :
> > Why do people have to be "endorsed" to develop and create free
> > content?  I am rather proud of Wikipedia's celebrity photographer, who
> > politely takes pictures for Wikipedia articles without any
> > endorsement, just like the best of Wikipedia's editors, politely
> > creating accurate content on encyclopedia-worthy topics, without any
> > endorsement from Wikipedia.  Isn't this what Wikipedia is?
> Because some pictures cannot be taken unless one has been granted
> special access conditions to a "press area". It is for instance very
> difficult to take pictures of the speakers at a political rally unless
> you're really in the front, which is reserved for the press and VIPs.
> The same applies to a variety of events, or even to photographs of the
> inside of buildings, etc.
>
> Practical example: members of Wikimedia France took photographs of
> presidential candidates during the election run. In some cases, they
> were simply shooting from the public (and thus had to deal with e.g.
> getting pushed when taking photos and the like), but the best quality
> photographs were taken from the "press area", and they got access to
> this area because Wikimedia France asked them to be authorized to enter
> this area. (At least for major candidates; minor candidates who do
> around 1% of votes tend to have more informal procedures.)
>
> Organizers of such events do not generally grant press access to random
> individuals. They want professionals, with a press card (we cannot help
> there, at least in France, since press cards are only for professional
> journalists), or at least, if we're lucky, they want an organization to
> endorse the photographer.
>
> Think of it this way: organizers cannot let every Tom, Dick and Harry go
> to front row and take pictures, for practical reasons. In the past, the
> criterion for admittance was "being a press photographer", which meant
> one doing press photos as a professional job. In the era of
> user-generated content, blogs, wikis etc. this criterion is becoming
> somewhat of an annoyance. On the other hand, I can understand that
> organizers and officials don't want hundreds of amateur photographers
> rushing in with their compact cameras...
>
> Wikimedia France talked about this issue to various officials and
> organizers, and everybody seems to agree that there is a problem. We've
> been asked to provide proposals. We'll have to think about this seriously.


David,

Thanks for the detailed answer to the question I asked--always a treat.

I had been considering art and cultural events more than political events,
but candidate pictures will also be important.  In other words, on en.Wiki,
we have to find a way to get credentials for photographers without
credentialling them.  I am going to see what I can do to get my favorite
Wikipedia celebrity photographer access to political events.

KP
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