Jeff Widener: "Tank Man because that image will always validate that I was on this planet"

 Via The Eye of Photography

May 9, 2022

By Carole Schmitz 

Jeff Widener: In the heart of current events

Best known for his photograph of the man facing the tank during the 1989 Tiananmen uprising in Beijing, “Tank Man”,  – an image that made the front page of many newspapers and magazines at the time and made him a finalist for the 1990 Pulitzer Prize – Jeff Widener is a highly respected photojournalist who has received many awards for his work (Columbia University’s DART Award, Harry Chapin Media Award, Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism, France’s Scoop Award, etc.)…

Widener grew up in Southern California where he attended Reseda High School, Los Angeles Pierce College and Moorpark College, majoring in photojournalism. In 1974, he was awarded the Kodak Scholastic National Photography Scholarship, competing against 8,000 students from across the United States. The award included a study tour of East Africa.

In 1978, Widener began his career as a newspaper photographer in California and later moved to Nevada and then Indiana. At age 25, he accepted a position with United Press International in Brussels. His first assignment abroad was the Solidarity riots in Poland.

Over the years, he has covered assignments in more than 100 countries involving civil unrest and wars to social issues. He was the first photojournalist to file digital images of the South Pole. In 1987, he was hired as the Associated Press Picture Editor for Southeast Asia, where he covered major stories in the region from the Gulf War to the Olympics. Other assignments included East Timor, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Burma, Syria, Jordan, India, Laos, Vietnam, Pakistan and many others.

Your first photographic click ?

Jeff Widener : I still have the photograph. It was taken in 1967 of my grandfather walking to our house in Canoga Park, California. The camera was a Kodak Flashfun Hawkeye camera gifted by my parents at age 10.

The man of images who inspires you?

Jeff Widener : Josef Koudelka, Eliott Erwitt, W. Eugene Smith, Larry Burrows.

The image you would have liked to make?

Jeff Widener : I aleady made it … “Tank Man”.

The one you regret you didn’t made ?

Jeff Widener : More images of the Tiananmen Square uprising. I suffered a head injury the night of the massacre and I was sick with the flu. I was also just too scared.

The one that moved you the most?

Jeff Widener : Ruth Orkin’s An American Girl In Italy 1951. A fantastic street photography image.

And the one that made you angry?

Jeff Widener : I never took a photo that made me angry but during an Air Vietnam crash in Bangkok in the 1980’s, I witnessed a group of Thai photgraphers asking a rescue worker to hold up a severed leg of a passenger for a picture. I myself could not stomach documenting the moment.

If among your images you had to choose only one ?

Jeff Widener : Tank Man because that image will always validate that I was on this planet.

A key image in your personal pantheon?

Jeff Widener : I have to return to “Tank Man”.

The quality needed to be a good photographer?

Jeff Widener : It’s not about quality so much as having the ability to feel an emotional response from your surroundings and being able to anticipate the decisive moment before it happens.

The secret of the perfect image, if it exists?

Jeff Widener : A perfect image is one that instantly tells a story and lingers for weeks or years in your . Brain. It might remind you of a song, a past lover or period in your life. Ruth Orkin’s An American Girl in Italy 1951 is a classic example.

The person you would dream of photographing?

Jeff Widener : I have already photographed just about every head of state, member of royalty and celebrities but if I ever could have documented one group, it would have been The Beatles in their prime with total complete access. The dynamis and coverage of the world reaction would have been phenomenal.

An essential photo book?

Jeff Widener : Josef Koudelka’s ‘Exile’.

The camera of your beginnings?

Jeff Widener : Nikon FTN, Nikon F2.

The one you use today?

Jeff Widener : Leica M7, Leica R8, Nikon D810.

Your favorite drug?

Jeff Widener : Approval.

The best way to disconnect for you?

Jeff Widener : Some of my favorite moments have been nights sitting alone in a third world guest house without any electrical power. It’s times like that while sitting in the dark where one gets lost in self reflection. Then when things get depressing, you step outside and are greeted by swaying palm trees and a night sky filled with stars. It’s times like that when I really feel alive.

Your greatest quality

Jeff Widener : Forgiveness

An image to illustrate a new banknote?

Jeff Widener : Charles Lindbergh.

The job you would not have liked to do?

Jeff Widener : Food photography.

Your greatest extravagance as a photographer?

Jeff Widener : Cost is no object on self assigned stories.

The values you wish to share through your images?

Jeff Widener : I value honesty. Journalism is a noble profession that is neutral and unbiased. Any deviation is a sacrilege to the profession.

The city, country or culture you dream of discovering?

Jeff Widener : North Pole. I have been to South Pole. After covering assignments in over 100 countries, I have found that most cultures pretty much have the same desires especially when it comes to family.

The place you never get tired of?

Jeff Widener : Waking up.

Your biggest regret?

Jeff Widener : Too many to list.

Instagram, Tik Tok or snapchat?

Jeff Widener : Instagram.

Color or B&W?

Jeff Widener : Depends on the what is needed. But I am partial to Tri-X 400.

Daylight or artificial light?

Jeff Widener : Whatever is needed but I prefer natural.

The most photogenic city according to you ?

Jeff Widener : New York City. A blind monkey could find a picture.

If God existed would you ask him to pose for you, or would you opt for a selfie with him?

Jeff Widener : Neither. I would just thank him.

The image that represents for you the current state of the world?

Jeff Widener : Burning shopping malls.

What is missing in today’s world?

Jeff Widener : Sanity.

And if everything was to be remade?

Jeff Widener : I would want to remember everything.

Jeff Widener, the photographer behind Tiananmen 'tank man' image

June 5, 1989, Tiananmen Square: A day after the military opened fire on protestors, photographer Jeff Widener was setting up the shot for the now iconic "tank man" image: "I was leaning over the balcony aiming at this row of tanks, and the guy walks out with this shopping bag and I was thinking 'the guy is going to ruin my composition.'" The final photo won the Scoop Award in France, the Chia Sardina Award in Italy, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize

The Charlie Rose Show:  Charlie Rose has a conversation with award-winning photojournalist Jeff Widener who took one of the most famous photographs of the 20th century

Time LightBox: Tank Man at 25: Behind the Iconic Tiananmen Square Photo


Bloomberg TV: `Tank Man’ Photographer Remembers Tiananmen Square


Voice of America: Q&A with Jeff Widener: 'Tank Man' Photographer



Jeff Widener is the photographer who took the famous ‘Tank Man’ photograph near Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 5, 1989, during a crackdown on pro-democracy students that stunned the world. On the eve of the 25^th anniversary of the photograph, interviews with Weidner are featured in many news outlets, a few are linked below.


CNN: Jeff Widener, the photographer behind Tiananmen 'tank man' image


Widener: 'Tank Man photo changed my life'


The New York Times: 25 Years Later, Details Emerge of Army’s Chaos Before Tiananmen Square


Wall Street Journal: Forgotten Negatives From the ‘Tank Man’ Photographer


South China Daily Post: 'Many have forgotten the brief moment China was free', says Tiananmen 'tank man' photographer


Daily Mail: Tiananmen Square 'Tank Man' photographer shares forgotten negatives from bloody government crackdown on 25th anniversary



"Each year in the run-up to the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square killings, China tries to intimidate journalists into silence. The 25th anniversary seems to have prompted an even broader crackdown," said CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney from New York.

Twenty-three years ago today, Jeff Widener ran out of film during the most important assignment of his life

Jeff Widener—AP

A Chinese man stands alone to block a line of tanks heading east on Beijing's Changan Avenue in Tiananmen Square on June 5, 1989. The man, calling for an end to the recent violence and bloodshed against pro-democracy demonstrators, was pulled away by bystanders, and the tanks continued on their way.

Via Time LightBox


The brutal crackdown at Tiananmen Square was underway and Widener, a photographer for the Associated Press, was sent to the square to capture the scene. “I rode a bicycle to the Beijing Hotel,” Widener says. “Upon my arrival, I had to get past several Chinese security police in the lobby. If they stopped and searched me, they would have found all my gear and film hidden in my clothes.” But there, in the shadows of the hotel entrance, he saw a long-haired college kid wearing a dirty Rambo t-shirt, shorts and sandals. “I yelled out, ‘Hi Joe! Where you been?’ and then whispered that I was from AP.” Widener remembers. He asked to go to the young man’s room. “He picked up on it,” says Widener, “and out of the corner of my eye I could see the approaching security men turn away, thinking I was a hotel guest.”

This Day in History, June 4, 1989: Tiananmen Square

Jeff Widener

New York Times: Shanghai Market’s Echo of Tiananmen Date Sets Off Censors

New York Times Lens Blog: Behind the Scenes: A New Angle on History

Via ABC News: "China's internet censors have blocked words and phrases associated with yesterday's anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

Key phrases relating to yesterday's date and expressions like "never forget" have been blocked by China's internet censors."

Via The Guardian: Chinese censors act to silence Tiananmen anniversary talk

Via BBC News: "China has detained political activists and placed others under increased surveillance in cities around the country to prevent them from marking the anniversary of the massacre in Tiananmen Square on Monday."

Via VR Zone: In yet another crackdown on free speech, China has banned searches for terms relating to the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, where hundreds of pro-democracy protesters were killed by government forces.

Forthcoming Exhibition: "People Get Ready: The Struggle For Human Rights"

JEFF WIDENER: Tiananmen Square Tank Man

Monroe Gallery of Photography is pleased to be representing photojournalist Jeff Widener.

 
Jeff Widener (born August 11, 1956 in Long Beach, California) is an American photographer, best known for his image of the "Tank Man" confronting a column of tanks in Tiananmen Square during the 1989 Beijing riots which made him a nominated finalist for the 1990 Pulitzer. Prior to the picture, Widener was injured during the night event of June 3rd, 1989 after a stray rock hit him in the head during a mob scene on the Chang-An Boulevard. His Nikon F3 titanium camera absorbed the blow, sparing his life. The "Tank Picture," repeatedly circulated around the globe, (except in China where it is banned) and is now widely held to be one of the most recognized photos ever taken. America On Line selected it as one of the top ten most famous images of all time.

Jeff grew up in Southern California where he attended Los Angeles Pierce College and Moorpark College majoring in photojournalism. In 1974 he received the Kodak Scholastic National Photography Scholarship beating out 8,000 students from across the United States. The prize included a study tour of East Africa.

 In 1978, Widener started as a newspaper photographer in California and later in Nevada and Indiana. At age 25, he accepted a position in Brussels, Belgium as a staff photographer with United Press International. His first foreign assignment was the Solidarity riots in Poland.

Through the years, he has covered assignments in over 100 countries involving civil unrest and wars to social issues. He was the first photojournalist to file digital images from the South Pole. In 1987, he was hired as Associated Press Picture Editor for Southeast Asia where he covered major stories in the region from the Gulf War to the Olympics. Other beats included East Timor, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Burma, Syria, Jordan, India, Laos, Vietnam, Pakistan and many more.

Widener is now based in Hamburg, Germany. The iconic Tiananmen Square photograph will be on exhibit in Booth B-500 during Photo LA, January 13 - 16, 2012.

More
Read: Eyewitness at Tiananmen Square, 1989
Interview with Jeff Widener, "Tank Man" Photographer

FEBRUARY IN HISTORY: NIXON IN CHINA, 1972

John Dominis: Chinese Premiere Chou En Lai and US President Richard Nixon toast each other, Peking, 1972  (Vintage print 10 x 8 inches)

From February 17-28, 1972, President Nixon visited the PRC and traveled to Peking, Hangchow, and Shanghai. He was the first U.S. president to visit the People's Republic of China since it was established in 1949.

On February 21, 1972, President Nixon met with Chairman Mao Tse-tung.  After a modest reception at Peking airport, the president was formally welcomed at a lavish banquet held in the Great Hall of the People and hosted by Prime Minister Chou En-lai. Using one of Mao's own quotations, Mr Nixon said it was time to seize the day and seize the hour "for our two peoples to rise to the heights of greatness which can build a new and better world". There followed an elaborate round of toasts, in which the 800 guests at the banquet wandered from table to table clinking thimble-sized glasses containing Chinese firewater.

Now, it is common to see the familiar tag: Made In China, but it wasn't always this way. After President Nixon’s trip, relations between the two countries continued to develop, eventually leading to a free-trade policy.


Related:
Listen to Nixon discuss his rationale for the trip, and his reasoning for the importance of restoring communications with the People's Republic of China.

"Nixon In China": The Opera