Battlefield Image Wins In Wiki Loves Monuments
Mary Woodson of Fairfield has been recognized as a top 10 finisher in the 2025 Wiki Loves Monuments United States photography contest, one of the world’s largest photography competitions celebrating cultural heritage sites.
Woodson’s photograph, “Cemetery Hill at Gettysburg at Sunrise,” was selected as the 10th-place image out of more than 3,200 submissions from over 390 photographers nationwide. The contest jury evaluated entries on photographic and artistic quality as well as encyclopedic value in documenting unique historical sites.
Woodson, a free-lance photographer with The News-Gazette, took the photo when she and her husband, N-G editor Darryl Woodson, visited the Civil War battlefield last October.
“Darryl’s a big Civil War buff, and whenever I ask him what he wants for his birthday or Christmas, he just says he wants a trip to a battlefield. So this was an early Christmas present,” said Mary Woodson.
“We’re both photographers and we had decided on our first night in Gettysburg to get up before sunrise and try to get some good sunrise photos on the battlefield,” she continued. “The hotel was just down the hill from Cemetery Hill, one of the important locations on the battlefield, so just before sunrise we got up and jumped in the car and drove to the top of the hill.
“When we arrived, the sky had turned orange and there was fall mist in the valley below. It was beautiful,” she said.
She and Darryl took multiple photos as the sun came up, and it was one of those photos that she submitted to the Wiki Loves Monuments contest when the call for entries popped up on her computer screen about a month later. “I had no idea that I would actually win,” she said.
Wiki Loves Monuments is an annual international photography competition organized through Wikimedia Commons that encourages photographers to document and preserve images of historic monuments and landmarks. The contest operates in countries around the world, with national winners advancing to international judging.
Woodson’s image has been forwarded to the international jury, which is currently evaluating top entries from participating countries to determine the global winners of the Wiki Loves Monuments competition.
