Wiki Clicks AMU: Celebrating the Rich AMU picturesque
Wiki Clicks AMU invited bonafide Aligarh Muslim University students to participate by submitting photographs that bore witness to the university’s beauty, thereby contributing to Wikimedia Commons’ growing visual archive. Set at the intersection of digital knowledge-sharing and aesthetic appreciation, Wiki Clicks asked students not merely to capture images, but to see — to look again at the familiar landscapes of their daily routines and find in them the extraordinary. It was an invitation to reimagine the university as not only an academic space, but a living, breathing canvas.
The Wiki Club AMU dedicated significant time and effort to organizing the Wiki Clicks Photography Contest, ensuring it was well-promoted, smoothly executed, and aligned with Wikimedia’s values. Countless hours went into coordinating with judges, designing promotional materials, managing submissions, and maintaining transparency throughout the process. Their hard work helped make the contest a success and encouraged wider engagement with free knowledge and creative expression.
Three thematic categories anchored the competition: Architecture of AMU, Natural Scenery, and Hidden Gems of AMU. Each one asked participants to frame the university through a distinct lens. The Architecture theme highlighted AMU’s iconic buildings. Red sandstone facades, Mughal arches, and colonial spires featured prominently, rendered with angles both reverent and bold. In some frames, symmetry held sway. In others, shadow and texture lent the stone a contemplative depth. The Natural Scenery category turned attention toward the campus’s quieter rhythms. Morning mists, trailing bougainvillea, birds in mid-flight. The lens here functioned not as a recorder but as a witness to the ephemeral. Nature was not a backdrop but a cohabitant of the AMU experience. The final theme, Hidden Gems of AMU, may have been the most intimate. From sun-dappled dhabas tucked between departments to forgotten benches under neem trees, participants unveiled the corners of campus often overlooked. The entries in this category carried a kind of affectionate secrecy, a knowingness that comes only from having walked these grounds with familiarity and care.
The contest received a remarkable number of entries, not just from members of Wiki Club AMU, a testament not only to the enthusiasm of AMU’s student body but also to their instinct for visual storytelling. While only a few could be formally awarded, the broader success lay in the richness of representation. Students across disciplines paused to reflect on what makes AMU theirs — not only historically or institutionally, but personally. After careful deliberation by a jury- Aafi, Ndahiro Derrick, ThePoeticFrame, and Wasiul Bahar - the winners of Wiki Clicks AMU were announced.
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1st prize: In the tranquil corners of Aligarh Muslim University, nature weaves its own story by Mawiya Shaheen -
2nd prize: A greenish view of the AMU's VM Hall by Shahrukhansari17 -
3rd prize: Glory to Ruins - Story of a lonely jeep in Sir Syed House AMU by Brainwavewizard
First prize was awarded to Mawiya Shaheen, whose photograph combined clarity of vision with emotional depth. Second prize went to Shahrukhansari17, whose entry showed a keen sense of composition and texture. Third prize was claimed by Brainwavewizard, whose submission stood out for its narrative layering. In addition, special mentions were given to Khanahmedsam, 21CHBSA307, and Mdndurrani for their evocative and technically strong entries.
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Strachey Hall by Mdndurrani -
English: Nature's confetti scattered with love by 21CHBSA307. -
The Dome of AMU's Biochemistry Department by Khanahmedsam
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Each of these contributions will find a permanent home on Wikimedia Commons, extending the life of the event beyond the campus and allowing a global audience to glimpse the soul of AMU through the eyes of its students. In that sense, the contest was as much an act of archiving as it was of art, a way of placing memory into the public domain. Wiki Club AMU, through this initiative, reaffirmed the value of participatory documentation. The club’s effort was not to curate perfection, but to celebrate presence: the shared, the seen, the lived. Wiki Clicks AMU was not merely a contest. It was an affirmation that a university is not made only by syllabi and seminars, but also by sunlight on library walls, the hush of courtyards at dusk, and the joy of discovery tucked in forgotten corners.