1/20/2024 0 Comments Lecia tiananmen square video![]() ![]() ![]() That day, Widener and his colleagues had drawn straws for the night shift. The army was sent in, and on 4 June soldiers and tanks opened fire on protesters, killing and injuring thousands. Protesters on hunger strike had started to occupy Tiananmen Square on, and within days they were more than a million strong. The unknown Chinese man’s face-off with the tanks came after weeks of demonstrations calling for democratic reforms that had rocked the capital. It was a tremendous coup for a photographer who was not even based in China but had been called in to help out the AP’s Beijing office at a time of huge political turmoil. He had just enough time to take one shot in focus, before asking the student to smuggle the film out of the hotel to the US embassy in his underwear from where it could be sent to his office. Risking missing the photo, Widener, now 62, rushed to grab a teleconverter to double the focal length of his lens, returning to the balcony moments before Tank Man disappeared. But the student is shouting: they’re gonna kill him, they’re gonna kill him! At first I’m thinking this guy is going to screw up my composition. “There’s these four tanks and I think it is a nice composition. Widener decided to take a nap, but was woken by the sound of tanks. He’s gone for hours and when he comes back he has one roll of Fuji 100 ISO. Tanks mass in Tiananmen Square in June 1989 as the Chinese authorities attempt to crush the demonstrations. The third, however, made Widener and his unknown subject famous. Of those three photographs, two were not in sharp enough focus. He had also run out of film, and only managed to secure a roll by asking a US exchange student from whose hotel balcony he was working to scrounge some for him.Ĭhanging lenses in the midst of the encounter, later reimagined in Lucy Kirkwood’s play and television series Chimerica, Widener almost missed the moment, managing to shoot just three pictures before the man with the shopping bags was hustled away. On the day Tank Man was taken, 5 June 1989, the then Associated Press photographer had flu and was concussed from a blow to the head the night before that had destroyed one of his cameras. Speaking to the Observer before the 30th anniversary of the protests, Widener recalled that the picture was almost not taken, as circumstances conspired against him at almost every turn. He looks more vulnerable: a common man asking a question, like: why are you doing this? My feeling is that this guy had no concern for his safety. I think mine also has a more ‘Gandhi’ feel. ![]() I think I was lucky I was using such a fine-grained film. “Every Tank Man photo has a different flavour. Jeff Widener was not the only photographer to capture the scene, but it is his image – listed as one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential of all time – that has become the most famous. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |