(Nearly) 20,000 Free-to-Use Images Now Available in the WordPress Photo Directory

Almost 20,000 free, high-quality images are part of the WordPress community-submitted Photo Directory. They are free to use on any site (not just WordPress) for both commercial and non-commercial purposes.

You read that correctly – these photos are CC0-licensed, meaning they are part of the public domain. They can be downloaded and used for any purpose, including marketing and branding, with no cost or attribution required.

Who gave these photos away, you ask? Since the directory’s launch in 2021, 2,075 individuals have collectively submitted an impressive 19,409 images.

Just yesterday, the Photo Directory received a design update, aligning it with the rest of the WordPress.org website. The update transformed every element into blocks and unified the design with consistent layouts, fonts, and color schemes. While the design looks more sleek, the content and functionality remained the same.

The catalog’s Search feature in particular is not very accurate, however. For example, a search for “cat” returns 251 images, while the similar term “kitty” returns just 2. Among the “cat”-tagged images, you might also notice several unrelated photos of churches and boats. This happens because terms like “cathedrals” and “catamarans” are indexed under “cat” as well.

The new design for the photos directory is definitely an improvement and a step in the right direction.

One enhancement I’d like to see, however, is displaying photo details in a popup or modal window rather than navigating to a separate page. This would help maintain the user’s browsing flow and momentum, similar to the experience on Unsplash and other photo-related platforms.

– John Fraskos, UI/UX designer

While there is room for improvements, the directory itself is remarkable for being free and open to everyone. The photos are also included in the Openverse project, the former Creative Commons search engine which was acquired by Automattic in 2021.

How to use this thing?

WordPress users can add any image from the Photo Directory directly to their websites through Openverse, using the Block Inserter in the Media tab. Like so:

What type of photos can you find?

The photos are divided into thirteen categories, though the taxonomy is unusual when you examine the numbers for each category. The total count adds up to 22,889, indicating that the classification is not strict and some photos are included in multiple categories.

My favorite category, People, contains 371 pictures. However, due to legal requirements these images cannot feature any human faces.

The Nature category, with 13,214 photos, and the Architecture category, with 3,804 photos, have the highest numbers of photographs. The category with the fewest photos is Athletics, with only 45 images. This is likely due to the challenge of avoiding human faces while capturing sports activities.

I was surprised there aren’t more photos in the Food and Drink category. Searching for ‘bagel’, ‘jamon’ or ‘pierogi’ returns zero results.

All images adhere to high-quality standards. Below are the requirements for submitting an image to the directory:

A community driven directory

More than 2,000 people have contributed images, all of which have been moderated by volunteers from the WordPress project. A total of 32 volunteers have manually reviewed these submissions to ensure compliance before approving them for inclusion in the repository.

If you go to WP Photos Info, a project by HeroPress, you can find some interesting stories behind each image.

“Some of the photos on the WPPhotos site are absolutely gorgeous, or intriguing, but have very little description. We wanted to know more. To find out why the photo was taken, or where, and when.“

A repository of CC0 photos in an incredibly valuable asset to the greater Internet, and making it as usable as possible is a wonderful task!

– Topher DeRosia, Founder of HeroPress

WP Photo Directory Stats, created by Marcus Burnette, keeps track of the growth of the project showing the number of contributors and photos, month by month.

As with many things, the 80/20 rule applies: 20% of the contributors are responsible for 80% of submitted images. However, I couldn’t find the names of the top photographers listed anywhere.

I don’t know who they are, but an anonymous voice in the WordPress community told me that many are now banned from contributing due to their affiliation with WP Engine: “None of the top three contributors have uploaded a picture in months.” It’s sad that one more community-built project was caught in the midst of the Matt Mullenweg vs. WP Engine storm.

A page showcasing the top 10 contributors and one of their chosen photos perhaps would still bring some form of recognition to their work.

Did you find an interesting photo in the Photos Directory? Are you going to use any of those images on your sites or other web projects? Share your comments.