Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Louis R. Lowery's Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima

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Louis R. Lowery's Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima[edit]

Lowery's most widely circulated picture of the first flag raising. This picture is usually captioned as: 1st Lt. Harold G. Schrier with Platoon Sergeant Ernest I. Thomas, Jr. (both seated), PFC James Michels (in foreground with rifle), Sergeant Henry O. Hansen (standing, wearing soft cap), Corporal Charles W. Lindberg (standing, extreme right), on Mount Suribachi at the first flag raising. However, PFC Raymond Jacobs disputes these identifications, asserting that it should be: Pfc James Robeson (lower left corner), Lt. Harold Schrier (sitting behind my legs), Pfc Raymond Jacobs (carrying radio), Sgt. Henry Hansen (cloth cap), unknown (lower hand on pole), Sgt Ernest Thomas (back to camera), Phm2c John Bradley (helmet above Thomas), Pfc James Michels (with carbine), Cpl Charles Lindberg (above Michels).
other version already present on wikipedia
Slightly different shot of same event that I found on the web, notice the flag position
Reason
On February 23, 1945, members of the United States Marine Corps succeded in reaching the top of Mount Suribachi, a dormant volcano located on Iwo Jima. At the top of the volcano they raised the Flag of the United States for all to see. At the time USMC photographer Louis R. Lowery had taken a picture of the event, without realising that a second flag rasing later that day captured by AP photographer Joe Rosenthal would overshadow his as the accepted flag raising photograph. Since Joe Rosanthal's picture is copyrighted for the next few decades, I decided to place this one up here for a shot at FP status to enlighten our members about the flag raising and in some small way honor Louis R. Lowery's original flag raising photograph. Because Lowery was employed by the USMC, and on duty when he shot this photo, THIS PICTURE IS IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN.
Articles this image appears in
Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima
Creator
Louis R. Lowery
  • Support as nominator — TomStar81 (Talk) 05:51, 8 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Weak oppose I don't doubt this picture deserves FPC, but is this really the best scan available? Adam Cuerden talk 14:14, 8 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • I have been cruising the internet via Yahoo! and Google for a couple of monthes, and this is the best one I could find. Others are too dark, most are too small, and the ones that are not too dark or too small have series flaws (like large gashes or handwriting on the photo) that are not FPC material. TomStar81 (Talk) 20:15, 8 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Oppose The picture is grainy when at full resolution, and the caption is too long. Also, I am not sure if the focus of the picture should be the flag or the people.
Surely a long caption (that can be trimmed at any point) isn't a compelling reason to oppose. Debivort 19:55, 8 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I concure with Debivort on the caption. TomStar81 (Talk) 20:15, 8 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • I too agree with debivort, after all, a captain be re-written, this photograph can't be re-taken, and because of that i give my support — Preceding unsigned comment added by Hadseys (talk • contribs)
  • Support In my opinion, historic significance outweighs concerns about image quality.. A better scan will be preferred though. --snowolfD4 ( talk / @ ) 00:42, 9 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support per Snowolfd4 Bleh999 01:43, 9 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Comment besides the details in this image are no worse than Joe Rosenthal's image (dark and lacks any fine details), and his one has been replaced with a low res version on wikipedia, not sure why the US government claims it is public domain since Rosenthal wasn't a US soldier when he took the photograph Bleh999 03:55, 9 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Oppose given that there's a (much) better shot illustrating this landing, no matter how small or non-free it happens to be. For FP, historic events need to be reasonably well-photographed as well as encyclopedic. This one is just not a particularly good capture; I agree there's too much emphasis on the foreground and the whole shot is out of focus. mikaultalk 10:36, 9 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Rosenthal's shot had more emotional impact, I wouldn't say it was a much higher quality image, there wasn't much fighting up mount suribachi since most of the battle for Iwo Jima was fought underground so portraying the marines fighting up the mountain wasn't entirely accurate. Look at this color painting of the famous shot [1] I wonder if it is really public domain as claimed by the US government Bleh999 11:37, 9 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, it's probably the most famous war pic in which there's no actual conflict... I can't get that link you posted to work, but I know what you mean. I agree the quality of the copy of the Rosenthal shot we have here isn't up to scratch, but I've seen a print of the original and it's not only in focus, it's a really well-framed, powerful photo, where this one is a lame snapshot in comparison. mikaultalk 15:35, 9 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Comment. Can someone please down-sample the image and attempt to slightly clean it up? I think we can give away some resolution to reduce the film grain seen. Zakolantern 17:09, 9 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
We already have another version on wikipedia, uploaded in January 2007, I have added it here for comparison. Bleh999 05:49, 10 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Comment No more comments or votes? lack of interest in subject? Bleh999 11:48, 15 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
In that case, no consensus then. MER-C 03:21, 16 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
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