Continuing my clean-up project for old 2008 Tribeca photos, I recently unearthed a few that I thought were pretty special and made them the new Wikipedia article leads.  The old one is on the left, the new one is on the right:

Debbie Harry – (born July 1, 1945) is an American singer-songwriter and actress, most famous for being the lead singer for the punk rock/New Wave band Blondie. She has also had some success as a solo artist, and in the mid-1990s she also performed and recorded as part of the Jazz Passengers. Harry has also engaged in an acting career with over 30 film roles and several television appearances to her credit.

Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini – (born Raymond Michael Mancino; March 4, 1961) is an Italian-American former boxer. He held the World Boxing Association lightweight championship for two years in the 1980s^. During a fight with Mancini, Duk Koo Kim sustained brained injuries in a prize fight with Mancini, and died.  Mancini went to the funeral in South Korea, but he fell into a deep depression afterwards. He has said that the hardest moments came when people approached him and asked if he was the boxer who “killed” Duk Koo Kim. Mancini went through a period of reflection, as he blamed himself for Kim’s death. In addition, Kim’s mother committed suicide four months after the fight, as did the bout’s referee, Richard Green, in July of 1983.

Enson Inoue – (born April 15, 1967) is an American mixed martial arts fighter. He has a professional MMA record of 11-8-0 as of April 16, 2004. He is the brother of Egan Inoue. Though relatively unknown among today’s MMA fanbase, Inoue holds a submission win (armbar) over former UFC Heavyweight Champion Randy Couture as featured in the documentary film Rites of Passage.

Gaius Charles – (born May 2, 1983) is an American stage, television and film actor best known for playing Brian “Smash” Williams on NBC’s Friday Night Lights.

These images are licensed Creative Commons and are part of a public art project.  Click here to see more.

lot of my photography from the last three years–in fact, most of it–is on a crashed external hard drive I bought because I was afraid of a computer crash.  I have to get it fixed, so I don’t have access to a lot of my old Tribeca shots from 2007 and most of 2008.  There were a couple of 2008 premieres I still had sitting on my laptop; in particular, Baby Mama and Redbelt.

Revisiting those photographs has been fun.  First, my Photoshop skills (I only Photoshop lighting and color) have improved.  Second, there were shots that at the time I didn’t realize were better than the original ones I uploaded.  Last, I was able to conform to the preferred style that has evolved on Wikipedia over the  years for a lead image head shot.

Here are a few things I learned about people’s tastes on Wikipedia for lead image biography shots:

• “Far-off gaze” is preferred over direct eye contact with the camera.  I think people like to feel like they are observing the subject unseen, a fantasy interrupted by the subject looking back at you.
• Head shots, not full body shots, go in the lead.
• Nothing too artistic; it should be clear and unadorned.  The viewer  should not be aware of the photographer in the shot.
• The image should be a rectangle, reaching down to their chest, and right above their head, and stretching to somewhere midway along the shoulders on each side.

Keeping those preferences in mind, below are old (left side) vs. new (right side) 2008 biography shots:

Kristen Bell – (born July 18, 1980) is an American actress. Although her first film role was an uncredited appearance in Polish Wedding, Bell previously acted in stage and musical productions. In 2001, she made her Broadway debut as Becky Thatcher in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. After re-locating to Los Angeles, Bell landed various television guest appearances and small film parts, before she gained fame as the title role on the critically acclaimed television show Veronica Mars from September 2004 to May 2007.

Faye Dunaway - (born January 14, 1941) is an American actress. She has won an Academy Award, an Emmy Award, and three Golden Globe Awards.

Dunaway won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Network (1976) after receiving previous nominations for the critically acclaimed films Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and Chinatown (1974). She has starred in a variety of other memorable films, including The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), Little Big Man (1971), The Towering Inferno (1974), Three Days of the Condor (1975), Mommie Dearest (1981).

Randy Couture - (born June 22, 1963), also known as “The Natural” and “Captain America,” is an American actor and mixed martial artist, Greco-Roman wrestler, and former collegiate wrestler, and the former heavyweight champion of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Couture is one of only two UFC fighters to have held a championship title in two different divisions (heavyweight and light heavyweight) while in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (the other fighter being BJ Penn), as well as the only five-time champion in UFC history. Couture is a member of the UFC Hall of Fame, and many consider him to be the most popular fighter in MMA history.

Amy Poehler - (born September 16, 1971) is an American comedian and actress. She was a cast member on the NBC television entertainment show Saturday Night Live from 2001 through to 2008. In 2004, she starred in the film Mean Girls alongside Tina Fey, with whom she worked again in Baby Mama in 2008. She is currently the lead star of a new NBC show titled Parks and Recreation. She was nominated for the 2008 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.

These images are licensed Creative Commons and are part of a public art project.  Click here to see more.

I looked through my 2008 Tribeca Film Festival photos at the premiere of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler‘s Baby Mama and found some new shots to upload for the Creative Commons.

Liya Kebede – (born January 3, 1980) is an Ethiopian model who has appeared on the cover of US Vogue twice. According to Forbes, Kebede was the eleventh highest-paid model in the world.

Justin Theroux – (born August 10, 1971) is an American actor, screenwriter and director.

Sigourney Weaver – (born October 8, 1949) is an Academy Award-nominated American actress, best known for her roles as Lt. Ellen Ripley in the Alien film series and as Dana Barrett in the Ghostbusters movies.

Chevy Chase – (born October 8, 1943) is an American Emmy Award-winning comedian, writer, and television and film actor. Born into a prominent family, Chase quickly became a key cast member in the inaugural season of Saturday Night Live, where his Weekend Update skit quickly became a staple of the show. Chase is also well known for his portrayal of the character Clark Griswold in four National Lampoon’s Vacation films.

These images are licensed Creative Commons and are part of a public art project.  Click here to see more.