Reason

I'll let the photo do the talking here.

Proposed caption

A Chechen separatist fighter praying during the First Chechen War.

Articles this image appears in

Ethnic conflict, First Chechen War

Creator

Mikhail Evstafiev a.k.a. Evstafiev

• Support as nominator MER-C 05:41, 6 November 2007 (UTC)
• Question. Other than appearing in the First Chechen War article, what evidence is there to suggest this is the case? The photo has no image description whatsoever and no date. If we take it that it is from there, then I assume it's a scan of a film image, given the war took place from 1994 to 1996 - I'm not good at telling whether images are scanned or not if it's a very good scan, especially at this size; can anyone else tell? This may help prove its age. Also the 'author spam' should be removed from the captions in the articles in my opinion (even if the author apparently has a Wikipedia page, it's not relevant to the articles the photo is in and just seems like a bit too much self-promotion, as the file is also named after him; the link could go in the non-existent description). But before worrying about anything else I'm struggling for encyclopaedic verifiability given this complete lack of information from the uploader/creator. --jjron 07:47, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

• I poked the photographer. MER-C 08:39, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

It is scanned, either Neg or a print. There were no real digital cameras in 1996 and there are a few scanner artifacts in the picture: A white dust, or scratch in the center about a third from the bottom, and some other dust... -Fcb981^{(talk:contribs)} 19:31, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

• Support It's a fine image, as good as any free-licensed photojournalistic work we have. There's only ever the photographer's word for the authenticity of images like this, which the shot has in the form of a short caption. Pre-digital shots are impossible to date accurately (I agree this is almost certainly a scan) and although a little more info would be nice (like where exactly that fire is coming from) the fact that the image was posted by its creator at First Chechen War is enough for me. --mikaul^talk 16:07, 7 November 2007 (UTC)
• Support per mikaul. -- Coneslayer 16:23, 7 November 2007 (UTC)
• Support either I think it is a real deal.--Mbz1 17:14, 7 November 2007 (UTC)
• The photographer has uploaded a higher resolution scan. MER-C 01:24, 8 November 2007 (UTC)
• Support Wow! Muhammad Mahdi Karim 16:41, 8 November 2007 (UTC)
• Question Do the buildings look like they're falling over? Tried fixing tilt on edit. Possibly too much, or maybe tilt fix isn't even necessary. Opinions? tiZom_(2¢) 19:25, 8 November 2007 (UTC)
  • Nice catch --ffroth 01:42, 9 November 2007 (UTC)
• Support edit 1 - tilt correction looks good - striking image. de Bivort 04:20, 9 November 2007 (UTC)
• Support edit 1 Great images but I didn't notice the tilt until it was pointed out. – sgeureka ^t•c 11:52, 9 November 2007 (UTC)
• Support edit 1. Marvelously evocative image, and encyclopedic. Spikebrennan 17:02, 9 November 2007 (UTC)
• Support Edit 1 Incredibly encyclopedic. --Sharkface217 22:24, 9 November 2007 (UTC)
• Oppose First, there is no proof that the uploader's claims are true. Second, it does not show anything special about that conflict or at least conflicts in general.--Svetovid 17:20, 10 November 2007 (UTC)
• Support edit 1 . Interesting and eye-catching picture. H92110 18:16, 12 November 2007 (UTC)
• Support edit 1 . Very descriptive of showing what the people did at the event. --Tadayuki ^紅葉 04:02, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

You mean that they prayed while there was war going on?--Svetovid 12:42, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

Promoted Image:Evstafiev-chechnya-prayer3.jpg -- Chris.B | talk 16:08, 15 November 2007 (UTC)