File:William Clyde Martin 200 250 72.jpg

Portrait photo of Bishop William Clyde Martin (date unknown)

Image originates from the cover of the following book: Kirby, James E.; Brother Will: A Biography of William C. Martin (Hardcover); Abingdon Press; 1st edition (February 2000); ISBN 978-0687094677. It is not known if the author of the book is also the copyright holder of the image.
Image was downloaded from: https://www.amazon.com/Brother-Will-Biography-William-Martin/dp/0687094674

William Clyde Martin

Only a portion of the image from the book cover is used. The original image shows the full upper body of the subject, the portion used in the uploaded image shows just the head and shoulders of the subject, similar to a passport style image. I included the shoulders to show the collar of the Bishops robe, assuring the proper dignity of a high ranking church official.

The image size is 200 x 250 pixel @ 72 DPI. At this size the image is of no reasonable commercial value. Copies of the uploaded image would be of inferior quality and at the given resolution even a small increase in size would lead to blurring of the image, rendering it completely unusable for any commercial purpose outside of Wikipedia.

The purpose of the photo is to depict an important person in the history of the Methodist Church in the United States. Martin was Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, The Methodist Church, and the United Methodist Church. He served as President of the National Council of Churches and was a member of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches. He also held two Doctor of Laws degrees that were awarded by Nebraska Wesleyan University and Baker University. Inclusion of the photograph would significantly increase the article quality as there are no other free images available to illustrate the subject.

The subject is deceased since 1984. It is not possible to take a new photo under a free license. The image could only be replaced by another unfree image. After an extensive search on the internet I found that there are no free images available to depict the subject. Two other images of Martin are on the website of the National Council of Churches USA (URL: http://www.ncccusa.org/news/NCCPresidentMartin.htm), a b/w passport style photo and a photo with another person, the latter too small to be of use depicting the subject in the infobox. Both of the alternative images are under copyright.

Having had the choice between two unfree images of Martin that could serve the purpose of depicting the subject, I prefered the one that was uploaded for the following reasons.
(1) It is in color, rather than b/w which, in my opinion, is the more desirable option to enhance the article quality.
(2) It shows Martin at a later point in his career wearing a Bishops robe rather than a dress suit, which I find the better choice to represent his achievements in just one image.
(3) On the image I chose, he looks to the left, which works better with the infobox that is usually placed on the right side of the article.