Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Watching the Dancers

Watching the Dancers

Voting period is over. Please don't add any new votes. Voting period ends on 12 Feb 2024 at 22:19:34 (UTC)

Original – Four Hopi women on an adobe roof of Walpi pueblo in 1906, looking down at the plaza where dancers are performing. The women have traditional squash blossom hairstyles, indicating they can be courted.

Reason: striking, often reproduced/printed photo by a notable photographer, now in a restored version
Articles in which this image appears: Walpi, Arizona, Photogravure
FP category for this image: Wikipedia:Featured pictures/People/Traditional dress
Creator: Edward S. Curtis, restored by W.carter

Support as nominator – Cart (talk) 22:19, 2 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Comment Despite the image only being a photogravure, it's on the Library of Congress list of "Miscellaneous Items in High Demand". Luckily, a second photo from the same event is preserved as a photo print, so I could use that as reference when I restored this one. Cart (talk) 22:29, 2 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Question Why has the writing around the original been removed? Charlesjsharp (talk) 13:46, 3 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The writing has to do with the printing company who printed the photogravure, not the photographer. As mentioned above only this photogravure has survived, not the original plate or a photo print. The photographer only made small number notes on his prints, as can be seen on the print of the other photo of the scene. Cart (talk) 14:01, 3 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yes; so the 'original' here is the photogravure which should not be cropped. Charlesjsharp (talk) 11:01, 4 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I think there's arguments. I usually go with "Is there a salvagable border?" Because weird grey paper (due to being a black-and-white-scan, when paper tends to have a very slight yellow tone) isn't really worth saving. I'd say Support, as long as the text cropped is in the description. Adam Cuerden ^(talk)_{Has about 8.8% of all FPs.} 08:49, 7 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Comment – I like this a lot. It puts the 'people' in the 'place', their ancestral place. Bammesk (talk) 01:38, 5 February 2024 (UTC) . . . . . Support – Bammesk (talk) 02:57, 9 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Support Great image. – Yann (talk) 21:15, 6 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Another version of the image was previously nominated on Commons FPC, but it failed since the restoration wasn't properly made. That's when my interest for these photos started. Cart (talk) 21:39, 6 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Support - Can the caption text be tightened, and also a date (even just year) be added to it? (— 𝐬𝐝𝐒𝐝𝐬 — - talk) 02:04, 10 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
For example, "Four Hopi women on the adobe roof of Walpi Pueblo in <19xx>, looking down at the plaza where dancers are performing. The women have traditional squash blossom hairstyles, indicating they can be courted." (— 𝐬𝐝𝐒𝐝𝐬 — - talk) 02:08, 10 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Certainly, all texts can be tweaked. Now fixed. Cart (talk) 10:17, 10 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@W.carter: Little advice: when the Library of Congress - and only the Library of Congress - write "c1906" as a date, they mean COPYRIGHT 1906, not circa. It's one of the weird quirks of the archive. Adam Cuerden ^(talk)_{Has about 8.8% of all FPs.} 09:26, 10 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you Adam, very useful info. That explains a lot. Deciphering archive codes isn't always easy. ;-) Cart (talk) 10:20, 10 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Btw Did you know that this hairstyle was the inspiration for Princess Leia's hairdo? [1] If this is featured and a TFP, might May the 4th be a good date for it? :-D (half kidding, half serious) Cart (talk) 11:26, 10 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
- I know you're half-joking, but I would oppose this. I'm certainly not someone who believes that cultural appropriation is inherently evil and colonialist, but I think it is important not to make the appropriative use the primary one in which a cultural tradition is understood. Particularly for something like this that is coming out of a now severely endangered indigenous culture, the original context should always be primary, the later reference secondary. Anyway, this is a great and important image--thanks for restoring it and nominating it. blameless 19:40, 10 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for your input, and I agree with your reasoning. I come from a culture where we freely float odd ideas and we like to brainstorm, to see if anything constructive can come from it. I know that is not generally embraced on wiki, hence my caveats. I was sort of going for the boost a big present-day thing could have for highlighting what you rightly call a "severely endangered indigenous culture" in some way. Cart (talk) 20:03, 10 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with Blameless. Bammesk (talk) 14:56, 11 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Got it. No brainstorming here. Cart (talk) 16:24, 11 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Support. MER-C 15:07, 10 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Support. blameless 19:40, 10 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Promoted File:Watching the Dancers by Edward S. Curtis 1906 - restored.jpg --Armbrust ^{The Homunculus} 19:55, 13 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]