Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/American officer and French partisan crouch behind an auto during a street fight in a French city

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

American officer and French partisan crouch behind an auto during a street fight in a French city[edit]

Voting period is over. Please don't add any new votes. Voting period ends on 15 Jul 2020 at 01:30:57 (UTC)

Original – A French partisan and an American soldier in a French city, 1944.
Reason
Highly historically valuable image. The quality could be better, however in my opinion the historical value and compelling human interest of the image outweighs its flaws.
Articles in which this image appears
French resistance (lead image), History of France, Sten, cover of a book (different version)
FP category for this image
Wikipedia:Featured pictures/History/World War II
Creator
unknown US Army Signal Corps soldier, uploaded by National Archives bot, restored by User:Buidhe
  • Support as nominator – (t · c) buidhe 01:30, 5 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support. MER-C 09:41, 5 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support – Bammesk (talk) 16:22, 5 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  • Comment There's a line on the cheek of the man who's standing up a bit more; I think it's an artefact as it looks misplaced for a scar. There's also a speck roghtly left and slightly down of the nose on the crouching figure. Minor specks elsewhere, including on the left... gendarme (?)'s face, but those seem the most important. Otherwise, looks pretty good, but I do like a little bit of extra attention to faces. Adam Cuerden (talk)Has about 7.3% of all FPs 16:55, 5 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]
    • @Adam Cuerden:  Done all these things (hopefully) — this is the first photograph I've tried to restore to FP quality, so I really appreciate the feedback! (t · c) buidhe 19:25, 5 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]
It looks good. There's still a bright spot on the cheek of the left man in the kepi in the back, which I'd remove as well, but Support Adam Cuerden (talk)Has about 7.3% of all FPs 19:40, 5 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support. TheFreeWorld (talk) 09:44, 6 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  • Oppose This is an obviously posed photo with little EV - if this was really a "street fight", why would French gendarmes be standing together in the background making themselves obvious targets, and what's the soldier in the background doing just hanging around with his gun in its sling when the American soldier and resistance fighter are in combat? And why was the photographer standing in the street between the supposed fighters and whoever they were fighting to take this photo? A high proportion of "combat" photos from World War II were posed, but usually not as blatantly as this. Nick-D (talk) 11:28, 6 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]
    • If you look at the French resistance article, you can see that virtually no photographs show the French resistance in action, they are all either post-liberation or show prisoners in German captivity. So unless there are better images to be had, I think this one retains significant EV. (t · c) buidhe 11:54, 6 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  • Oppose. Nick-D raised legitimate questions about this photo. It actually looks staged. --Gnosis (talk) 17:54, 6 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  • Oppose for now. We have historically blocked FP for photos that, like this one, have subjects who appear to be identifiable but have not been identified. Knowing who they were could go some way towards clarifying the seemingly-staged nature of the photo. —David Eppstein (talk) 19:50, 6 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]
    • It's not unusual for the protagonists of a famous photograph to be unidentified. The Osprey book which has the photograph on its cover does not give their names or any additional information than is in the NARA caption, nor can I find it anywhere online. (t · c) buidhe 21:57, 6 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  • I disagree that a staged photograph necessarily lacks EV. This painting does not accurately depict the Battle of Austerlitz, rather it is a staged composition, but it is used as the lead image because we have no better images to use. I submit that this case is much the same, as it is dangerous to take photographs when combat is actually occurring. Should we delist Adam Cuerden's opera posters because they are promotional, not particularly realistic, and don't perfectly represent the opera in progress? (t · c) buidhe 21:57, 6 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]
    • My concern here is that this is a badly staged photo. The photographer didn't even ask the guys hanging around in the background to get out of shot. Nick-D (talk) 08:16, 7 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  • Weak oppose - It's certainly staged, but the frightening lack of firearm safety by that lieutenant is astounding. He's about to shoot the Frenchman in the leg. Yikes. Not good in terms of realism or professionalism. -- Veggies (talk) 16:34, 11 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]
    • Maybe the safety was on?? ;-) --Janke | Talk 19:17, 12 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Not Promoted --Armbrust The Homunculus 02:39, 15 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Featured_picture_candidates/American_officer_and_French_partisan_crouch_behind_an_auto_during_a_street_fight_in_a_French_city&oldid=967751548"