Wikipedia:Unusual biographical images

This is an essay on Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Images.

It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article or a Wikipedia policy, as it has not been reviewed by the community.

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This page in a nutshell: While turning an unillustrated article into an illustrated one is undoubtedly an important task, editors should use common sense when doing so for articles about living people: Consider not adding extremely low-quality or otherwise questionable biographical images.

English Wikipedia's policies on copyrights and image use mean that we can only use own-work, freely-licensed, or public-domain images in articles, and can only use copyrighted images under Wikipedia's special and very strict (stricter than the law) non-free content criteria. Not only are these criteria strict, photographs of living people typically also fail the separate "unacceptable use" guidelines, which act like a redundancy layer to make it extra certain that non-free images of living people are not used.

Copyrighted photographs of living people generally fail already at the first non-free content criterion: "No free equivalent". It states that where a free equivalent could be created, a non-free photograph of a living person may not be used, because in most cases, a photograph of a living person can be taken and released under a free licence. This is based simply on the fact that the person is living. "Unacceptable use" guidelines include the provision against using non-free pictures of people still alive ...; provided that taking a new free picture as a replacement (which is almost always considered possible) would serve the same encyclopedic purpose as the non-free image (WP:NFC#UULP). They also proscribe using a photo from a press agency or photo agency ..., unless the photo itself is the subject of sourced commentary in the article (WP:GETTY), which is especially relevant for celebrities.

At the same time, there is a very strong desire by editors to add images to articles, and many editors see it as an "easy way to improve the encyclopedia". This aligns with the idealized progression scheme for each article: According to the guideline for assessing the quality of a Wikipedia article, even "Start-class" articles need to either include an image or have some other very basic feature expected of any article, and "Good articles" are required to have an image (unless it is impossible to obtain one). Consequently, editors almost never agree that no image is better than at least some image, and in biographies, adding the subject's photo as the lead image is particularly seen as a top priority. To this end, contributors will take photographs of notable living subjects themselves, or come up with free images of living subjects in some roundabout way, such as by cropping a freely licensed or public-domain image in which the article subject is not the main subject.

Because of this, we occasionally end up with some peculiar and questionable biographical photos. The phenomenon is inherent to articles about living people, because the perverse incentive discussed in the previous paragraphs attaches to an assumption that a living person could be photographed, but in some aspects it extends to articles about dead people as well. These unusual biographical images may be low in visual quality, taken from afar, a non-facial angle or show their subject in a unique situation ... sometimes a very unique situation.

All of the images included below are either in use or were previously in use on English Wikipedia, generally as lead images. Feel free to add more compelling examples that illustrate the issue discussed in this essay (include only the strongest examples).

Academia

Business

Sports

Basketball

Football

Wrestling

Other sports

Politics

Politicians

Most-wanted Iraqi playing cards

For several members of the Ba'ath Party, the only freely-available images are from the most-wanted Iraqi playing cards set produced by the U.S. Government. Some of these cards contain no photographs at all, with generic silhouettes being used to illustrate the subjects.

Scottsboro Boys

All images used to illustrate the individual members of the Scottsboro Boys were originally sourced from a single uncopyrighted pamphlet.

Olen Montgomery
Clarence Norris
Haywood Patterson^[a]
Ozie Powell
Willie Roberson
Charlie Weems^[a]
Eugene Williams
Andy Wright^[a]
Roy Wright^[a]

Other political figures

Visual arts

Entertainment

Film and television

Internet

Music

Other entertainers

Other occupations

Biographical images that are unusual and highly justified

Qween Amor

Zdzisław Beksiński

Grover Krantz

Some images depict the subject in a peculiar pose, state, or situation, or while performing a particular activity they are known for, either of which is either tied to the reason why the subject is notable, and/or there is a meaningful link between the given peculiar aspect of the photograph and the article's prose. Such images are therefore significant and relevant in the topic's context and look like what they are meant to illustrate. They may also be of fairly high quality (but not necessarily).

Non-free images

When all avenues of seeking a free image are sought out, and none give any results, one is ultimately forced to use a copyrighted (fair use) image to illustrate a person's article. As the amount of copyrighted images tends to be much higher than freely-licensed or public domain ones, these images are usually of good quality. But in some rare cases, even the available copyrighted images of such people can be unusual.

Due to the restrictions under the fair use rationale guidelines, these images cannot be directly displayed here and must be linked to instead.

Reactions from subjects

Occasionally, the subject of the Wikipedia article in question has some thoughts on the chosen image. These tend to be negative reactions.

Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t ^u ^v ^w ^x ^y ^z ^aa ^ab ^ac ^ad ^ae ^af ^ag ^ah ^ai ^aj ^ak ^al ^am ^an ^ao ^ap ^aq ^ar ^as ^at ^au ^av ^aw ^ax ^ay ^az ^ba ^bb ^bc ^bd ^be ^bf ^bg ^bh ^bi ^bj ^bk ^bl ^bm ^bn ^bo ^bp ^bq ^br ^bs ^bt ^bu ^bv ^bw ^bx ^by ^bz ^ca ^cb ^cc ^cd ^ce ^cf ^cg ^ch ^ci ^cj ^ck ^cl ^cm ^cn ^co Replaced
^ ^a ^b ^c Cropped and replaced
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ Removed
^ ^a ^b Retouched and replaced
^ Used on other language Wikipedias where fair use images are not permitted.
^ Previously used under fair use guidelines

External links

BadWikiPhotos on Instagram
WikiPortraits — a project to help improve the quality of portraits used on Wikipedia

[Replaced-1] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t ^u ^v ^w ^x ^y ^z ^aa ^ab ^ac ^ad ^ae ^af ^ag ^ah ^ai ^aj ^ak ^al ^am ^an ^ao ^ap ^aq ^ar ^as ^at ^au ^av ^aw ^ax ^ay ^az ^ba ^bb ^bc ^bd ^be ^bf ^bg ^bh ^bi ^bj ^bk ^bl ^bm ^bn ^bo ^bp ^bq ^br ^bs ^bt ^bu ^bv ^bw ^bx ^by ^bz ^ca ^cb ^cc ^cd ^ce ^cf ^cg ^ch ^ci ^cj ^ck ^cl ^cm ^cn ^co Replaced

[Cropped_and_replaced-2] Cropped and replaced

[Removed-3] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ Removed

[en3-4] Retouched and replaced

[en5-5] Used on other language Wikipedias where fair use images are not permitted.

[6] Previously used under fair use guidelines

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