Photos by Bangladeshi photographers among top 10 winners of Wikipedia contest

Two photos of Baitul Mukarram National Mosque, taken by Bangladeshi photographers, have secured places in the final list of Wikipedia’s Wiki Loves Monuments competition. Azim Khan Ronnie’s picture of people offering Jummah prayer at the national mosque has won the third place while Jubair Bin Iqbal’s exterior shot of Baitul Mukarram showing a solitary reader sitting between two columns has secured the seventh spot. The result was announced on Thursday.Wiki Loves Monuments is the world’s largest annual photo contest for monuments. It is organized by Wikimedia chapters and groups. The contest is now in its sixth year. Azim and Jubair will get the opportunity to purchase camera instruments worth €1,200 and €400 respectively. Nahid Sultan, Wikimedia Bangladesh secretary and also coordinator of the contest in here, said the country had taken part in the competition for the second time.

A lonely reader in the Baitul Mukarram National Mosque, #Bangladesh, gives a feeling of contemplation. Contributed by Jubair, this photo makes it to the 7th spot. https://t.co/9kbFQd7kyC #WikiLovesMonuments CC BY-SA 4.0 pic.twitter.com/8SCefOv4WR

— Wiki Loves Monuments (@wikimonuments) 14 décembre 2017

“It is a great news that Bangladesh has secured place in top 10 during its second participation,” he said. “Our main goal is to use pictures of important monuments we get from this competition with Wikipedia articles on Bangladesh and uphold the country’s heritage before the world,” Nahid said. This time, 119 participants from Bangladesh submitted nearly 3,000 pictures. Ten of them were selected and sent to the international competition. The competition is held every September. This year, over 254,000 photos were submitted by over 10,000 photographers. (Click here to see the winning shots) Wiki Loves Monuments contest is inspired by the successful 2010 pilot in the Netherlands, according to its site. The project has since helped collect information on 1.5 million monuments from 76 national competitions. More than 60,000 participants have so far submitted over 1.7 million pictures.Pallab Kabir took this photo at Lawachara National Park. WikimediaMeanwhile, Bangladeshi photographer Pallab Kabir’s photo of Lawachara National Park has been placed 11th in the Wiki Loves Earth’s fourth annual competition. The contest focuses on natural heritage in protected areas — unique and special places like nature reserves, landscape conservation areas, national parks, and more, Wikimedia says. This was Bangladesh’s first participation in this contest. (Click here to see this year’s winning shots)This article was first published on Bangla Tribune