Portraits of friends and foes

As #Wikipedia provides a neutral point of view, we need pictures that show friends and foes alike in a high quality. When the quality of such pictures is considered, being an European is hardly a valid argument to oppose the picture of a former USA president.

At this moment there is a civil war developing in Libya and it will slowly but surely find its way into our many Wikipedias. Many people are hopeful we do not have to wait long for the next president of Libya. In the mean time, we have a quality portrait of the current president. I entered it as a a featured picture candidate and, I am interested what the comments will be this time around.
Thanks,
      GerardM

A #portrait of Ronald #Reagan

Mr Reagan is known for two things; he was a movie actor and he was the president of the United States of America. This portrait of Mr Reagan has been digitally restored by Peter Weis and it shows Mr Reagan in a way that refers to both careers. It is also a picture that is likely to appeal to his fan-base.

In the Netherlands we joke about many of our politicians as being world famous in the Netherlands. We can safely say that Mr Reagan is world famous. As this picture is a featured picture candidate, it will be interesting to see what argumentation will be used and compare this with the argumentation used for featured picture candidates of the most senior politicians of other countries.
Thanks,
      GerardM

Promoting portraits on #Commons

Photography is more then clicking on the shutter. Getting an excellent result takes skill that can be honed by practice and good materials. Portrait photography is probably one of the more difficult areas of photography. Not only has the picture to be technically competent, a good picture expresses the persons character.

To make a picture with distinction, a portrait photo is often staged; special clothes and a location that has meaning are selected to get just that little bit extra. When you write an encyclopaedia, all subjects are full of people. People who invented, ruled, committed crimes, wrote music or painted portraits...

Juan Gérvas

The people who feature in Wikipedia articles are from all over the world and from all times. For many of these people we have one or multiple pictures. Having great portrait pictures in stock is very important.

Commons is the place for our pictures and I want more and better portraits. To achieve this, I plan on featuring once a week a portrait picture of the week on my blog. When this picture is not yet a featured picture, I will nominate it.

As this is my initiative, I will for now start it on a sub-page of my user page. Please propose candidates there or propose them directly as a featured picture candidate.
Thanks,
      GerardM