Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/The Touch

The Touch

 * Reason: This precious and beautifully captured moment shows the gentle touch a mother comforting her children, as U.S. Army soldiers conduct a search through their home. I believe the composition and overall aesthetic quality is worthy of being nominated on Wikipedia.  Additionally, this photograph has received First Place honors for the category of Portrait/Personality for the 2007 Military Photographer (MILPHOG) part of the Department of Defense's Visual Information Program (VIAP).  The Visual Information Awards Program is designed to recognize, reward, and promote excellence among military photographers, videographers, journalists and graphic artists for their achievements in furthering the objectives of military photography, videography, and graphic arts as a command information and documentation media within the military. This program operates under the aegis of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs and is administered by the Commandant of the Defense Information School (DINFOS), with cooperation from national and local professional organizations.
 * Articles this image appears in:Iraq War
 * Creator:Russell l. Klika

MER-C 01:45, 13 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Support as nominator &mdash; Signaleer 09:58, 6 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Oppose Neutral Blurry around the kids' faces, and the cloak is blown to black in many places.--HereToHelp 12:27, 6 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Comment How Judging is conducted... -Signaleer 13:29, 6 May 2007 (UTC)
 * I removed the bulk of the text as it had no relevance to the nomination. Diliff  | (Talk)   (Contribs) 13:25, 6 May 2007 (UTC)
 * It is not relavent to this nomination because the individuals who judge this contest are not professionals (do not have academic backgrounds nor working professional experience at the local, national or global level). Suffice to say, they are average people like you and me. -Signaleer 13:31, 6 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Exactly. I will admit, however, that I was hasty in my judgement. There are blurry areas, to be sure, but they are not in the subject of the picture. I did not realize this at first because the subjects of most of the pictures found on this page are nouns, but the subject here is an emotion. The blurry areas (hair, for example) are akin to background: not in that they are behind the subject but in that it is only tangentially related to it. The composition and emotion are conveyed in the areas that are in focus; having all the hair in focus would be distracting. (Too much time looking at the individual feathers of birds, I think!) However, between the black cloak and the shadow, there is a large splotch of black in the middle-right of the image.--HereToHelp 13:48, 6 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Oppose due to technical problems: Too dark in places, and clearly unsharp in full size. Also, a very strange grain/noise pattern. Might support a better quality version, if one can be found. --Janke | Talk 14:01, 6 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Oppose per above, sharpness/noise issues. The darkness on the right side throws off the balance for me. -- Phoenix  (talk) 17:46, 6 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Neutral I have Klika's Flickr page among my favorites (see also http://russellklika.com/), he has some amazing pictures. This one has slight sharpness problems, but if someone finds good uses for some of the others and nominates them I will likely support. ~ trialsanderrors 18:20, 6 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Weak oppose (for now) - Difficult one to decide. Exceptional composition and enc value, poor image quality. Alvesgaspar 20:42, 6 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Oppose primarily because I don't think it's a particularly good illustration of the Iraq War. If it was illustrating a more specific article and I was more convinced of the image's importance then I would support even at the relatively low quality. gren グレン 03:14, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Comment A photograph is a subjective piece of work, it is not meant to be a "good illustration of the Iraq War." -Signaleer 06:27, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
 * But it is supposed to be a good illustration for the article Iraq war. If it isn't, it probably shouldn't be in the article and therefore wouldn't quality for nomination here. It may be a good photograph - I'm not doubting that - but I think it is more appropriate for documentary photography than for an encyclopedia, where it struggles to find a home. Perhaps Criticism of the War on Terrorism is a better article, although even then it is difficult to claim NPOV on an image such as this. Diliff  | (Talk)   (Contribs) 10:19, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Considering you have not voted, Diliff, therefore your comment is moot. -Signaleer 10:23, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Absolutely not true. I'm merely interpreting the criteria and explaining them to you. I reserve the right to vote at any point but candidacy is more than just a vote anyway- it is also about discussion. One valid point brought up during discussion may be more valuable to reaching consensus than five votes without justification. Diliff  | (Talk)   (Contribs) 10:44, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Critera from what? I would also inform that your opinion is merely that, an opinion. -Signaleer 11:25, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Criteria from Featured_picture_criteria. Specifically criteria #5: "Adds value to an article". Wouldn't you agree that it has a pretty similar meaning to what I said above - "A good illustration for the article"? Diliff  | (Talk)   (Contribs) 11:42, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Oppose Only because I don't find it very encyclopedic. It's a beautiful photo and I don't think technical quality needs to be scrutinized as closely on a photo like this. —Pengo 13:59, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Oppose. Put it on Wikimedia Commons and I will cheerfully vote for it there, but I don't see how this image is illustrative of an encyclopedia subject. Spikebrennan 16:24, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Comment I think it would work in compassion, if anyone wants to change their mind on enc. I really think I'm neutral on the quality though. Terri G 15:02, 8 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Oppose, nice picture maybe, but not encyclopaedic.--Svetovid 20:37, 8 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Support I think it's a beautifully encyclopedic illustration of the impact of the Iraq War on civilian life. Every picture in the article is of either objects (vehicles, explosions, etc.) or of adult men, with the exception of one picture that shows soldiers and a child, and this nominee. The article would be sorely deficient if it didn't have a picture like this. Sometimes I think FPC needs more women voters :) Kla'quot 08:19, 9 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Support Beautiful picture. That small child's eyes are amazing Booksworm Talk to me! 16:32, 9 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Oppose Lacks encyclopadeic value. There's no way I could deduce from this picture that the family is having their housed searched by the US Army. It's taken too out of context to be featured here.  C e n t y   00:36, 13 May 2007 (UTC)