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The purpose of this page is to propose and discuss proposed themes for the monthly Commons photo challenge. When choosing new themes, the organizers look here for proposals, usually with the highest level of support.

  • Before proposing a new theme, look in the archives to get a general idea of what kind of proposals were successful before. If scheduled at enough distance, new proposals can be similar to already used themes, or to previously rejected proposals.
  • When creating a new section for each theme suggestion, follow the alphabetical order, include a gallery of example images and include a signature below the gallery[1].
  • Please vote or comment on other users’ proposals. Use {{Support}}, {{Oppose}} and {{Comment}} ( Support,  Oppose and  Comment) and add your response at the end of the section.
  • Please add Commons talk:Photo challenge to your watchlist and participate in the monthly discussions about future challenge themes.
  • Before archiving a proposal as rejected, leave a last reminder.

We value all your feedback and input. Thank you!

  1. This is clearer than a ‘Support as proposer’ vote, and allows others to respond easily using the reply tool. See Commons talk:Photo challenge#‘Support as proposer’.
SpBot archives all sections tagged with {{Section resolved|1=~~~~}} after 1 day. For the archive overview, see /Archive. The latest archive is located at /Archive/2025.

Aerial photography

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A technique that may be easy to learn, hard to master. But as drones have an increasingly important role in our lives, let's do a challenge for such photographs. Commons:Aerial photography may be interesting to read for some info.

 Support as proposer --Wikisquack (talk) 22:12, 30 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

Fair Ground

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Images of various fair rides eg: big Wheel...colours...tents games of chance /luck...food wagons...camps of fair ground staff,realistic portrayal of the hard work to create a useable canvas of the imaginary and escape from the daily grind to bring joy... Picture2025 (talk) 17:10, 25 July 2025 (UTC)Reply

 Support I like the idea and created a gallery --Kritzolina (talk) 08:22, 2 August 2025 (UTC)Reply

Thank you for your reply...really enjoyed your gallery..thought provoking ! Picture2025 (talk) 09:08, 2 August 2025 (UTC)Reply

Flagpole holders

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This architectural detail can be extremely varied, and does not seem to be well represented on Wikimedia Commons. Анастасия Львоваru/en 16:19, 4 July 2025 (UTC)Reply

 Oppose pretty irrelevant/unimportant and many photos already. Prototyperspective (talk) 12:38, 19 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
Unimportant? Many? Shame on you. Анастасия Львоваru/en 13:52, 19 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

Public elections

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I am thiking of this theme, as the coming year will be an election year for my home country, Germany. But independently of this, it is a topic that is clearly educational and where we always can use more good images to illustrate articles about current political affairs.

First aid

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We have a number of really good diagrams about First Aid, but not that many good photos. Perhaps we could encourage photgraphers to add some. --Kritzolina (talk) 20:32, 12 November 2023 (UTC)Reply

support. but i have a vague impression that, for example in germany, it's illegal to take photos of people in distress? RoyZuo (talk) 15:16, 10 January 2024 (UTC)Reply
If we take pictures of people, we should always aim to get consent for those images going public here, independently of the legislations. This is easier with people learning or teaching first aid procedures, as you can see in most of the examples. But you are right, we could attract images of people in distress, I will consider withdrawing my suggestion for that reason. Kritzolina (talk) 08:45, 30 January 2024 (UTC)Reply
  •  Support Great idea and important. I think it needs more videos and I don't know if that could be within scope of the challenge. Especially explanatory photos would be useful. Is there just one photo relating to first aid apps or telemedicine relating to first aid for example? Prototyperspective (talk) 23:03, 2 September 2024 (UTC)Reply
Is there any videography/videos challenge? Prototyperspective (talk) 16:05, 1 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
You can find the challenges we already did here, just on the other side of this page. As you can see there we did pure video challenges, like this on about verbs for example. We also did some mixed ones, where videos were included. You can see videos as entries in the challenge about Dance for example. I think a video challenge purely about videos on First Aid would not bring in sufficient media files to be worthwhile, but a mix sounds like a good idea. Kritzolina (talk) 16:57, 1 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
Thanks, good to know. Yes I think a mixed version would be best as videos would likely be more useful than photos here. Prototyperspective (talk) 17:19, 1 November 2024 (UTC)Reply

Oceanography

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Until 2030 we are in the UN-decade of ocean science for sustainable development. This is a topic that not everyone can get pictures for, but for that reason we are also not covering a lot of things with photos yet. A photo challenge might be a good oppotunity to at least get some more interesting images.

 Support as proposer --Kritzolina (talk) 17:12, 13 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

 Support important subject and while there already are many files in that area, it's very gap-y and there's at least a chance some users will upload missing things that close gaps. I hope whether or not the file is covering something we don't already have good files about/of will play a role in the voting and in what people look to take photos(/videos) of. Prototyperspective (talk) 19:19, 13 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

 Support -- Wikisquack (talk) 16:37, 15 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

Orange

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Color challenges always work well and we haven't done orange yet.

 Support as proposer --Kritzolina (talk) 17:31, 13 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

 Support It was autumn for some of us, so lots of orange leaves I guess :) Wikisquack (talk) 11:13, 18 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

 Support -- Akkbula (talk  Support--Junyu-K (talk) 22:27, 21 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

Outside in the city at night without a tripod

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The theme in 2016 was Long exposure photography. Now I suggest the theme Outside in the city at night without a tripod, which requires different preparation, technique and way of photographing compared to the 2016 theme.

Akkbula (talk) 09:41, 26 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

You should put back the old text here in a comment. Wikisquack (talk) 19:31, 26 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

Peace and Peace Symbols

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Thinking about our world right now, this might be a challenge to give all of us hope.

Public transport

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While we have a lot of good images of trains, buses and other forms of public transport are often not well represented on commons. Let's see what we can get.

Getting too specific will not allow broad participation - e.g. bicycle transport in PT is limited to people who can take pictures in Portugal. And not many people know where they can take pictures of recharging electric buses - especially as the usage of e-buses is not widespread in some countries yet. As for the public transport apps > it is really difficult to take pictures of such apps without uploading copyrighted material. By making the theme broad, we have a good chance of capturing some images of either topics or places that need coverage. Kritzolina (talk) 06:40, 29 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
e.g. bicycle transport in PT is limited to people who can take pictures in Portugal with PT I referred to public transport. By making the theme broad Nearly all people would just submit media of which we already have thousands of instances of and the best-looking ones of these would win. It could still be fairly broad but I don't know how, maybe by specifying which categories of public transport the challenge is about or something like public transport auxiliaries or how it's called if that's how one could classify these examples. Automated public transport could also do well with more media but there videos would probably be more suitable. There are also free software apps that lack media like Öffi. So as is I don't support the challenge but maybe there is a way to have a similar one which would be fairly constructive. Prototyperspective (talk) 10:14, 29 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
What if we split this challenge up into multiple ones? Public transport feels indeed like a very wide topic to cover. On the other hand Electric road vehicle recharging also feels very narrow. What about if we narrow it down to one type of transportation (eg. bus, tram, ferry, etc.) or by operation base (eg. rubber based (aka everything with a tire like buses but also rickshaws), steel wheel based (trams, trains, metro, etc), water based (ship ferries, cable ferries, water bus ships, etc.). --D-Kuru (talk) 07:21, 18 August 2025 (UTC)Reply
ADD: I just got another idea. What about limiting public transport to a certain time of day like night? --D-Kuru (talk) 20:44, 19 August 2025 (UTC)Reply

Puddles

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Weather here brings lots of puddles these days and this made me think this could be an interesting challenge. Puddles occur almost everywhere on earth, they often are overlooked as something banal, but many have hidden beauty - may it be because of reflections, an interesting colourscheme or bottom texture, things in the puddles and more. And many of us have some happy memories of splashing in puddles as children that we can revive through pictures.

Rephotography of Disasters

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See Category:Rephotography. Including floods as proposed by Llann Wé² above. There is a media gap despite being interesting and of relevance due to climate change and general usefulness. It can be two separate photos, a video, a combined photo, etc. Before and/or during and/or afterwards. Examples of events: 2024 Spain floods.

River mouths, confluences and deltas

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I think it would be interesting to see the various ways rivers can end, along with the surrounding landscape, landmarks etc. -- Wagner Cxxx 19:54, 8 March 2024 (UTC)Reply

 Oppose Lots of river photos already. Would support a river issues/pollution challenge. For example see the empty Category:River deoxygenation cat relatively few files on Category:Public water quality measurement of rivers. Prototyperspective (talk) 23:13, 2 September 2024 (UTC)Reply
While we have indeed lots of river photos, we are still missing pictures of lots of individual places. I think narrowing this challenge to the aspect of confluences and deltas has a good chance of bringing in pictures of places we are missing at the moment. And please feel free to create a challenge about those topics you find more important. Kritzolina (talk) 10:30, 22 September 2024 (UTC)Reply
Good point, but the photos submitted in the challenge would be mostly good-looking photos of rivers, not of many places or rivers where there aren't any photos or of delta/…-related subjects of which there currently aren't many photos (and I kind of doubt there are any or many of such subjects).
I created one challenge where I think images would both be very useful and where there is a large gap (which btw is a real problem if you want to make a video about health topics under CCBY and are looking for some files to use) and probably will suggest something else at another point that is not nearly as important but still also having gaps. The problem is that at this point photos are generally not the medium where many images are missing, I think that's rather illustrations but there is no challenge for such. When photos are missing they are often quite specific so not a whole subject area and here I listed some examples. I was thinking of revising my oppose to Weak oppose but looking at the examples there really are countless images like that. Prototyperspective (talk) 11:27, 22 September 2024 (UTC)Reply
Well, just compare this list and the Category:River mouths in Chile. One of the images is in the example gallery, and clearly we are missing a lot of others. We also could use a few more different images of the confluence of the white and blue Nile, but I agree that we are not likely to get some. Still - there are many, many rivers out there of which we don't have images of their confluence with the next bigger stream or their delta or river mouth. E.g. looking at the category:Confluences of rivers in Hesse I see a good chance to get a picture of a confluence that we don't have yet. Kritzolina (talk) 13:55, 22 September 2024 (UTC)Reply
If the challenge incentivizes and rewards files that close gaps in particular rather than any images that look aesthetically good and/or have good technical/photographic quality then I'd strike my Oppose or it could be ignored. Nevertheless, I certainly don't support it because what's so special about river mouths that can be seen in photographs or that people are looking photos for? The current rationale for the latter seems to be interesting to see the various ways rivers can end, along with the surrounding landscape, landmarks etc which I don't find convincing at all. It's not interesting and even if it was there's lots of images of that (even if not of every river ending) and interesting doesn't mean it's very educational or important / important to have photos of. Prototyperspective (talk) 18:36, 22 September 2024 (UTC)Reply

Shallow depth of field

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We have not had a purely technical challenge in a while, so let's try this one

Torus

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This is another subject where Wikimedia has many diagrams, but few actual pictures. Making this a monthly challenge could help with that. SCOTUS Operandi (talk) 20:41, 12 April 2025 (UTC)Reply

Flood: before, during, after...

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Hi. It's rainy for many people. Could be interesting to show flooded places before, during and after floods from the same spot, allowing to upload 3 pictures by site but for only 2 or 3 sites. Sorry, no exemple to show... lol LW² \m/ (Lie ² me...) 02:34, 22 February 2024 (UTC)Reply


  •  Oppose  Comment I think it is quite difficult to forecast floods, so showing places before floods may be really challenging. Although the idea is good to ask for a comparison during/after, it's too difficult to do for this type of challenge. Indeed, a flood has to occur during the challenge (which lasts only 2 months maximum). It would restrict the numbers of photographers too much. Wikisquack (talk) 11:52, 4 August 2024 (UTC)Reply
    One doesn't have to forecast floods and one doesn't have to take the photos anew instead of looking through old photos or going to a place on has previously photographed during some flooding. Indeed, a flood has to occur during the challenge false or do the photos have to be taken during the challenge (that would be new to me)? Your reasoning applies to many other challenges as well – not everyone has access to respective photographable subjects. There's many floods in Europe right now so people could take some photos now, see 2024 Central European floods. Especially interesting would be things like dams and similar protective measures which would be educational, important, and useful and probably is somewhat missing. Prototyperspective (talk) 23:05, 16 September 2024 (UTC)Reply
    Changed my vote -- Wikisquack (talk) 08:58, 14 May 2025 (UTC)Reply
     Support Wikisquack (talk) 16:35, 4 June 2025 (UTC)Reply
  •  Oppose IMO too special. --F. Riedelio • 💬 07:06, 18 August 2024 (UTC)Reply

Where land meets water

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An inspiration from shan shui (Q516583), but in consideration of users living at flat places, let's have land instead of mountains intersecting water.

RoyZuo (talk) 09:00, 3 November 2024 (UTC)Reply

Soviet Modernist architecture

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It is very easy to understand why this architectural style is badly represented on Commons: these buildings were built "without frills" and can be unfree without freedom of panorama. But as a result many projects cannot be described, so maybe this challenge can help.

--Jarekt (talk) 02:23, 3 July 2025 (UTC)Reply

Good idea, thank you. Анастасия Львоваru/en 18:05, 4 July 2025 (UTC)Reply
 Support this alternative proposal. S5A-0043🚎 04:34, 9 August 2025 (UTC)Reply

People in public institutions buildings

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If you know of a better title, please suggest it since I'm unsure what the best title would be. I simply mean what is called de:Öffentliche Einrichtung in German with the primary example being state-funded public schools. Also see Category:Government organizations.

I go the idea when looking for a photo of pupils using smartphones in class to add to the Wikidata item about smartphone use in school for this table (btw there you can find more concepts that miss an illustrating image) and I couldn't even see many photos showing a typical scene of students sitting in a classroom listening to a teacher. Likewise, photos of state workers working in public interest may be gappy – for example, I'd be interested in photos relating to their use and nonuse of open source software like Microsoft Office vs LibreOffice as well as digitization and diverse daily activities where photos would probably often be useful for Wikipedia articles about the job or task/activity etc. It's not about photos of the building interiors or just people randomly walking around within it but of certain activities etc. It's of high relevance and importance to society how a society passes on knowledge and skills to its next generation and how the state is functioning, especially in current times. The more representative or the more closing a gap of missing media, the better. Maybe the scope of this challenge should be narrowed somehow (maybe to "People using digital technologies in public buildings")? May add more examples later and you could add some too.

  •  Support as proposer – important and missing media.

Prototyperspective (talk) 14:18, 25 February 2025 (UTC)Reply

  •  Oppose I have some concerns about the privacy rights of the people in those public institutions. In addition the interiors of buildings are not included in FoP in many countries, so we would most likely also have copyright concerns with this challenge. --Kritzolina (talk) 06:19, 13 April 2025 (UTC)Reply
  •  Oppose Against, because children's privacy must be respected. And in some countries it is forbidden to take photos in public schools and to publish them, for example in Germany. sorry. Levin Holtkamp (talk) 19:40, 24 May 2025 (UTC)Reply
    Schools aren't the only type of public institutions. Also, FOP limitations apply as much as for any other uploads to Commons. Prototyperspective (talk) 20:06, 24 May 2025 (UTC)Reply

Wind and Air

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Everything in relation with wind and air, whether it's (powered by) wind or it creates wind: sports, engines, transports, music...

 Comment There were already 2017 - July - Sailboats and 2018 - April - Aircraft

 Question Should we make a separate one for "Wind turbines and windmills" ?

Wikisquack (talk) 11:24, 2 May 2025 (UTC)Reply

Wooden bridges

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We did bridges before and we did a challenge about the material wood, but I think this specific challenge combinig those two things could work well

 Support Wikisquack (talk) 11:16, 18 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

Metals

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Reflective metals in different light / sun / street lighting. Picture2025 (talk) 17:12, 25 July 2025 (UTC)Reply

@Picture2025 Please add a <gallery> of images (like all the themes above) so we can be sure of what you are meaning. If you don't understand what this means, feel free to ask help.
Please do so for your other topic as well (Fair Ground).
-- Wikisquack (talk) 15:56, 26 July 2025 (UTC)Reply
Reflective metals : to capture light reflected from for example a sun shinning on a chrome bar or a street lamp at night reflecting off a bumper of a vehicle or a garden tool or metal lock...be anything made of metal large or small....any structure...any size....copper...chrome...gold..silver even metal jewellery ... Capture reflection ... Picture2025 (talk) 17:25, 26 July 2025 (UTC)Reply
If it's just reflective metal / metals reflecting then that should be in the title. Prototyperspective (talk) 12:36, 19 September 2025 (UTC)Reply
Yes, i agree ' Reflective Metals' ..precise and less vague .. Picture2025 (talk) 15:25, 19 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

Windmills

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Windmills which are machines operated by the force of wind acting on vanes or sails Thomas Lee (talk) 00:36, 8 October 2025 (UTC)Reply

Please add examples. Also it's very broad (probably too broad). Prototyperspective (talk) 13:47, 8 October 2025 (UTC)Reply
I changed it to Windmills. Thomas Lee (talk) 19:48, 8 October 2025 (UTC)Reply
 Oppose Still no examples. Also there's many images of these already. Prototyperspective (talk) 19:20, 13 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

Social life & intelligence of pigs

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There's lots of media files of pigs (Sus scrofa domesticus). However, there are few files showing the social life and extensive cognitive abilities of pigs. Let's have one of the two photo competitions be about that important subject of the species we as Homo sapiens kill off in the billions every year now.

Pigs are roughly as intelligent as dogs but after their usually miserable life get killed during childhood at ~7% of their "maximum expected lifespan" on average. Because cognitive abilities are low as a child and even more so after living in a boring enclosure with little space and cognitive engagement, this would need to be pigs in zoos, domestic pigs, and things of that sort where cognitive abilities can better develop and be expressed. For information about their intelligence, see the Wikipedia which has just one barely illustrative file, Pig intelligence.

It would be very interesting files and, again, of course both important and close a gap in Commons' media. Maybe videos would be the better format for this. It's not necessarily easy to photograph this – possibly one needs to actively engage somehow to get them to do something peculiar or visibly show their curiosity for example. Maybe the entire concept of pigs as pets could be part of this, or even 'pigs outside the traditional factory meat farming context' (basically this is not a challenge for pics of pigs in farms or dead or dying pigs etc).

Prototyperspective (talk) 00:36, 19 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

 Support it fills a gap and is an interesting topic. -- Wikisquack (talk) 09:27, 19 November 2025 (UTC)Reply
 Support as proposer. Prototyperspective (talk) 13:01, 19 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

Mountains

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Mountains and sunsets Ericktemu1909 (talk) 16:45, 22 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

 Oppose While it would be very nice pictures, we have way too much pictures of sunsets on Commons already. It's the same for mountains. Maybe add some restrictions. -- Wikisquack (talk) 19:41, 28 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

The sky during the day

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Thème : Le ciel de tous les pays en fonction des températures européenne, même heure et même jour. Charlene Oliveira Barros (talk) 23:45, 27 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

Bonjour ! Est-ce que tu peux préciser ton idée, je n'ai pas bien compris... De plus, peux-tu l'écrire en anglais si possible ? On est sur un site international et de très nombreuses personnes ne parlent pas français. Si tu as besoin d'aide, n'hésites pas. -- Wikisquack (talk) 19:29, 28 November 2025 (UTC)Reply
(@Charlene Oliveira Barros) Wikisquack (talk) 14:11, 4 December 2025 (UTC)Reply

Mocktails

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A non alcoholic drinks, mocktails are drinks that taste like alcoholic drinks without alcohol use commonly serve at bars or restaurants. Capture mocktails with artistic photography perspective whether in daylight or dark. Photo expresses various colours of drink.Girlmath (talk) 15:55, 29 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

Please include a caption.
Would this include all kind of drinks or just non-alcoholic "cocktails"?
-- Wikisquack (talk) 16:35, 29 November 2025 (UTC)Reply
non alcoholic cocktails or juices Girlmath (talk) 16:39, 29 November 2025 (UTC)Reply

Doctor's visit & telemedicine

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These are important topics, images in these areas very useful, and I noticed a strange gap in these areas despite that this is of great relevance to society and individuals' daily lives (and of increasing importance due to demographic transition and other trends and developments).

See Category:Doctor's visit (new) and Category:Telemedicine.

--Prototyperspective (talk) 17:25, 4 December 2025 (UTC)Reply

  •  Support as proposer.

Prototyperspective (talk) 17:25, 4 December 2025 (UTC)Reply

how can you add these photos here I tried, but didn't found how to. Girlmath (talk) 13:56, 8 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
Hello, this isn't yet a photo challenge. If you think it should be, you can support this proposal with a comment saying so. If you're asking how to upload such photos without participating in any challenge/competition, just use the UploadWizard at Special:UploadWizard. Prototyperspective (talk) 14:20, 8 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
thank you I think the idea you present is unique and ideal for everyday users who often visit doctor. If they let me click them on while working Girlmath (talk) 14:25, 8 December 2025 (UTC)Reply