Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Wes Brady, former slave

Wes Brady, former slave

Voting period is over. Please don't add any new votes. Voting period ends on 27 Feb 2013 at 00:31:04 (UTC)

Original – Wes Brady, ex-slave, Marshall, Texas. From the Federal Writers' Project Slave Narrative Collection, a compilation of type-written interviews, along with selected audio recordings and photographs, featuring more than 2000 former American slaves. Mr. Brady's story can be read at this link.

Reason: The Slave Narrative Collection was one of the largest single endeavors of the Federal Writers' Project, second only to the American Guides series. While the narratives it produced have been frequently studied, cited, taught in schools, and debated, the photographs in the collection have gotten less attention. Although the photographers of the FWP were amateurs (unlike those of the much better known FSA), and are not always as technically adept as we might want, having the same person interview and photograph a subject can produce revealing, deeply human results, as I think we see here. The original is here for comparison; my reconstructive efforts were pretty minimal; I left the white balance where it was (I think it's pretty good, though there are other, more contrasty scans of this photograph around) and cleaned up some scratches, mostly on the top third of the photograph.
Articles in which this image appears: Slave Narrative Collection, Historiography of the United States#Slavery
FP category for this image: Wikipedia:Featured pictures/History/USA History
Creator: Anonymous photographer of the Federal Writers' Project; edited by Chick Bowen

Support as nominator --Chick Bowen 00:31, 18 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Support Obvious EV. ceranthor 19:37, 19 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Support Also echoing obvious EV here... Flaws can easily be forgiven for a 1937 project that probably wasn't about fine photography but documenting. — raeky t 23:20, 20 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]
- It's also possible there's a better photograph with less flaws in the 500 in the collection if someone was bothered do search through them.. [1]. — raeky t 14:07, 21 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  - I went through a lot of them, not all. I also was looking as much for subjective aesthetics as for technical proficiency, so someone else might come to different conclusions than I did about which one best represents the collection. Chick Bowen 20:46, 21 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Support — Stigmatella aurantiaca (talk) 07:22, 23 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Support per above. Photograph isn't perfect, but, if you want to document a project done by amateur photographers in 1937, then, well, what are you going to do? Take a better 1937 photograph? Adam Cuerden ^(talk) 11:55, 23 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Promoted File:Wes Brady, ex-slave, Marshall edited.jpg --Armbrust ^{The Homunculus} 00:36, 27 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]