User:Cullen328/sandbox/Hendrix

I do not yet know how extensive the discussion about the Hendrix mugshot in this book actually is. What I do know is that the New York Times reviewed the book in 2009, mentioning Hendrix first among many famous subjects, saying "Brief but informative accounts accompany the images and 'are intended to report reality and give the facts without ever interpreting them,' Pellicer writes. 'This is first and foremost a book of stories, not a history book.' Indeed, these faces tell some amazing stories."

The core principle that should guide our decision here is the WMF's March, 2007 board resolution which explicitly allows non-free images "to illustrate historically significant events". So how do we evaluate whether an event is "historically significant" or not? The yardsticks vary. If one is editing a 400 page textbook summarizing the entirety of world history, the inclusion criteria must by necessity be narrow. When editing an encyclopedia with over 4.4 million articles, our standards can and must be far broader. There is a certain amount of subjectivity in making such evaluations. I may reasonably conclude that a specific image meets the threshold, and another editor acting in good faith with a slightly narrower interpretation than mine, may come to the opposite conclusion. Both of us are commenting in good faith, and neither assessment should be dismissed out of hand. One of the standards that I use in this case is that this event of 45 years ago is discussed in books and periodicals published many years and even decades later.

WP:NONFREE states that "Iconic and historical images which are not subject of commentary themselves but significantly aid in illustrating historical events may be used judiciously". So, is this image "iconic" and is the arrest and trial a "historical event"? The biography currently devotes nine sentences to the arrest and trial. Some images are clearly more iconic than others, but the standard is not "highly iconic images" or "the most famous iconic images". An encyclopedia with over 4.4 million articles by definition has a broader and more inclusive definition than the famous photos of the Iwo Jima flag raising and the napalm burns on the naked little Vietnamese girl, and the corpses of students at Kent State. The iconic status of an image is always subjective. I sincerely consider this image to be "iconic" but realize that other editors disagree.

The book Jimi Hendrix: Electric Gypsy by Harry Shapiro devotes at least eight pages to the arrest and trial, reporting that after the arrest, Hendrix was "looking as if there was a plane crash" and "Jimi had a Sword of Damocles hanging over him for the rest of the year." The website Complex Style has discussed the mugshot, commenting "By 1969 Jimi Hendrix's wardrobe was at its peak levels of insanity and awesomeness. Imagine the knowing smirks airport security must have given each other when he strolled up at the Toronto airport. After finding a small bag of H in his luggage, Jimi's trippy gear was on full display in the ensuing mugshot.". Hendix's attire was the subject of intense interest in the months that followed, as reported by The Torontoist, which says "The press obsessed over Hendrix’s attire, reporting it in copious detail each time he appeared in court." This image of what he wore is the best record we have of the press obsession with his attire, specifically on the day of his arrest. The defense strategy, as reported in the Toronto newspapers, was that the drugs were planted, and also that someone intent on smuggling heroin across an international border would not have dressed and behaved in such a flamboyant way at the border crossing, and likely would have had needle tracks on his arms, and would have had drug paraphernalia along with the drugs that were siezed. All those factors including the attire were cited in support of the theory that the drugs were planted, and elicited from prosecution witnesses in cross examination. That was a completely successful defense strategy, since Hendrix was acquitted. This mug shot helps illustrate that defense strategy, since in that photo, he has "frizzy hair", a shirt with wide lapels, a bare chest, a vest with an ornate pattern, and bold jewelry on a chain.

The Torontoist published this mugshot and reported that The Globe and Mail ran seven stories about the arrest and trial, and the Toronto Star ran eight. The Rolling Stone ran two stories. Autobiographies by the two surviving members of the Jimi Hendrix Experience discuss the arrest, and several biographies of Hendrix devote significant attention to the arrest and trial. At least two biographies of Hendrix use the mugshot, by Roby and Jucha who describes "Jimi's mug shot after his bust in Toronto on trumped up charges".

As for its iconic status, a Google Images search shows the the mugshot is now featured on hundreds of websites, and being used a source material for fine artists, digital artists and online purveyors of T-shirts and coffee mugs.