The man in front of the tank: How journalists smuggled out the iconic Tiananmen Square photo

 Tiananmen Square: How journalists smuggled out the iconic ‘Tank Man’ photo | CNN

Via CNN

June 4, 2024

"The journey of the photograph, too, captured the tension and fear of the time – involving smuggling equipment and film past authorities and across borders. By that point, the Chinese government was trying desperately to control the message going out to the world – and was trying to stop all American news outlets, including CNN, from broadcasting live from Beijing.

It was Monday, June 5, 1989, and Beijing was reeling from the crackdown the day before. Liu Heung-shing, the photo editor for the AP in Beijing, asked Jeff Widener to help get photos of Chinese troops from the Beijing Hotel – which had the best vantage point of the square, now under military control.

Widener had flown in from the news agency’s Bangkok office a week before to help with coverage, and was hurt when the crackdown began, he told CNN previously – after having been hit in the head by a rock, and laid low with the flu.

He set off, with his camera equipment hidden in his jacket – a long 400-millimeter lens in one pocket, a doubler in another, film in his underwear and the camera body in his back pocket.

“I’m biking towards the Beijing Hotel and there’s just debris and charred buses on the ground,” he said. “All of a sudden, there’s four tanks coming, manned by soldiers with heavy machine guns. I’m on my bicycle thinking I can’t believe I’m doing this.”

“I hear rumors that other journalists had had their film and cameras confiscated. I had to figure out a way to get into the hotel,” he added. “I look inside the darkened lobby, and there’s this Western college kid. I walked up to him and whispered, ‘I’m from Associated Press, can you let me up to your room?’ He picked up on it right away and said, ‘Sure.’”

From there, Widener began photographing the tanks rolling by on the roads below – sometimes hearing the ring of a bell that signified a cart passing by with a body, or an injured person being taken to the hospital, he said.

Widener was at the window, preparing to photograph the column of tanks coming down the road, when “this guy with shopping bags walks out in front and starts waving the bags,” he said. “I’m just waiting for him to get shot, holding the focus on him, waiting and waiting.”

The tank stopped and tried to go around the man. The man moved with the tank, blocking its path once again. At one point during the standoff, the man climbed aboard the lead tank and appeared to speak to whoever was inside.

But Widener had a problem – the scene was too far away for his 400-mm lens. His doubler, which would allow him to zoom in twice as much, lay on the bed, leaving him a choice: Should he go grab the doubler, and risk losing the shot in those precious seconds?

He took the chance, got the doubler on the camera, took “one, two, three shots. Then it was over,” he said. “Some people came, grabbed this guy, and ran off. I remember sitting down on this little sofa next to the window and the student (Martsen) said, ‘Did you get it? Did you get it?’ Something in the back of my mind said maybe I got it, but I’m not sure.”

Liu remembers getting the call from Widener, and immediately firing off instructions: roll up the film, go down to the lobby, and ask one of the many foreign students there to bring it to the AP office.

The pictures were soon transmitted over telephone lines to the rest of the world.

Widener did, sending the student bicycling away with the film hidden in his underwear. Forty-five minutes later, “an American guy with a ponytail and a backpack showed up with an AP envelope,” said Liu. They quickly developed the film, “and I looked at that frame – and that’s the frame. It went out.”

Full feature here.

“I suppose for a lot of people it’s something personal, because this guy represents everything in our lives that we’re battling, because we’re all battling something,” Widener said. “He’s really become a symbol for a lot of people.”

Jeff Widener's photo of a man standing in front of tanks in Beijing's Tiananmen Square has come to symbolize ordinary people standing up to power

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by NPR (@npr)

 

Via NPR Throughline: Dare to Dissent

Originally aired December 14, 2023

This photo of a man standing in front of tanks in Beijing's Tiananmen Square has come to symbolize ordinary people standing up to power.

Want more? NPR's Throughline podcast has an entire episode on this topic. The link is here.

Dare to Dissent with Photojournalist Jeff Widener, best known for his image of "The Tank Man"

 Via NPR

December 14, 2023

Sometimes, the most dangerous and powerful thing a person can do is to stand up not against their enemies, but against their friends. As the United States heads into what will likely be another bitter and divided election year, there will be more and more pressure to stand with our in-groups rather than our consciences.

So a group of us here at Throughline decided to tell some of the stories of people who have stood up to that kind of pressure. Some are names we know; others we likely never will. On today's episode: what those people did, what it cost them, and why they did it anyway.

Guests:

Alexandra Lloyd, author of Defying Hitler: the White Rose Pamphlets and fellow by special election in German at the University of Oxford.

Johnathan Eig, author of the biography King: A Life.

Jeff Widener, a photojournalist best known for his image of the Tank Man.

Listen here:

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.

China sought to bury news of the protests. Jeff Widener’s images conveyed the bloody reality

Jeff Widener/© AP 

A lone man stops a column of tanks near Tiananmen Square, June 4, 1989, Beijing, China

Via The Washington Post


"It has been nearly 30 years since I witnessed the horrific events of June 4, 1989, when Chinese soldiers fired upon pro-democracy students in Tiananmen Square. Though many memories of the protests stir in my brain, it is the laughter that haunts me to this day.

On the evening of June 3, 1989, I stood with two other Associated Press photographers, Mark Avery and Liu Heung Shing, in a small dark office cluttered with humming picture transmitters and strewn camera gear. Low on staff, we had to draw straws to decide who would work the first night shift. I was the lucky victim.

The plan was to monitor the ongoing protests at Tiananmen Square in case anything unusual happened. Soon after, AP reporter Dan Biers and I pedaled our bicycles onto Chang’an Avenue. Though things were initially tranquil on the streets of Beijing, the stillness was short-lived. Small groups of men and women moved silently in the night, carrying large sections of steel road dividers to block the advance of any military threat.

I was traveling light, with my camera gear concealed in my clothing to avoid raising suspicion. From the shadows near the Great Hall of the People emerged an elderly Chinese man with a long white beard and an enthusiastic grin that flaunted two remaining front teeth. He proudly opened his heavy, dark coat and showcased a large silver hatchet that glimmered under the street lamps. Streams of blood trickled down the blade, forming droplets on the ground. In shock, I forced a fake smile and quickly moved on.

Just after midnight, an armored personnel carrier with a frontal machine gun cornered the avenue so fast that yellow sparks flew off the tread. As we ran for cover, I lost a camera lens.

Low on battery power, I was able to take only one flash picture every minute. This was a cruel joke for a photojournalist, and I was contemplating whether to return to the office and resupply when, in the distance, another personnel carrier lurched down the road completely engulfed in flames. Demonstrators were in hot pursuit of the vehicle, shoving large pipes into the treads. I had a single wide angle lens, which meant I had to risk getting dangerously close to the action and a possible exploding vehicle if I wanted to capture the images.

An angry protester stood over a dead soldier while holding a weapon in his hand. Then I spotted another man rolling around on the ground in flames. As a bystander tried to help the victim, all I could do was stare down at the small orange light on the flash that was attached to my camera, waiting for the signal that it was ready.

After what seemed to be an eternity, I finally lifted the viewfinder to my eye. Then, a terrific blow snapped my neck back. Laughter eerily rang out from the opposite side of the street as I struggled to stay conscious. I looked down in a daze at my shattered camera, which was covered in blood. The flash, lens and top plate had been ripped clean off by a piece of cement that was thrown at me.

Dazed and without a working camera, I grabbed a random bicycle from the ground and started heading back to the office.

The scene was chaotic. Buses were burning, and people were screaming while large-caliber machine gun tracers arched over the square. When I finally reached the office, Avery told me not to return to the streets because Chinese soldiers were “killing people.” In the darkroom, Mark salvaged the images I took by extracting the film from the smashed camera with a pair of pliers. Miraculously, the film chamber had remained light-tight.

In the days that followed, my pictures were transmitted around the world, appearing in Newsweek magazine and on the front pages of many other publications. As China sought to bury news about the protests and their violent end, my images conveyed to a global audience the bloody reality. And though my camera was destroyed, its reinforced titanium had absorbed the blow, sparing my life.

Though I still reflect on the protests, and particularly the day I photographed the iconic “Tank Man” image, it is the laughter right after the blow that I recall most.

Jeff Widener is a photojournalist, best known for his image of “Tank Man.”

Read the full article here.

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.

Cirque du Soleil pulls Tiananmen image from China shows after 'collective gasp'

Via South China Morning Post



 

Cirque du Soleil has removed a photo of the Tiananmen crackdown from its show in China after surprising an audience of 15,000 in Beijing with the iconic "tank man" image, which remains banned and highly controversial in the country. Full article here.

A photo of the show shared by a member of the audience. Photo: SCMP Pictures




Jeff Weidener/AP
A lone man stops a column of tanks near Tiananmen Square, 1989 Beijing, China

Jeff Widener shares his experience in documenting a war-torn African nation after entering the country with a humanitarian visa

Via PetaPixel
Jeff Widener · Aug 02, 2013

My Journey to Angola

 

Africa started tugging on me again last year and when an opportunity to join an NGO to Angola surfaced, I quickly seized the opportunity. Non-government agencies like the Red Cross and Amnesty International offer a way for photojournalists to see parts of the world completely closed off to the average traveler. The Chicago based RISE International, a non profit organization that builds schools in Angola allowed me to join them in July to document their work. Full article and photographs here.

Jeff Widener is a Pulitzer Prize-nominated American photojournalist who’s best known for shooting the photo “Tank Man“. He has documented wars and social issues in over 100 countries, and was the first photojournalist to send digital photos from the South Pole. You can read our recent interview with him here.

"There doesn’t seem to be any stopping Jeff Widener on his continued journey in making beautiful, real photographs"

Via Peta Pixel

A chat with Jeff Weidener, the photographer behind 'Tank Man,' a photo that is widely considered one of the iconic images of the 20th century.

JW: Basically it’s a lucky shot from being in the wrong place at the right time. I had been knocked silly the night before from a stray protestor brick that hit me in the face and the Nikon F3 Titanium camera absorbed the blow sparring my life. I was also suffering from a bad case of the flu during the whole Tiananmen story so I was pretty messed up. Our Asia photo editor had been in Beijing for weeks covering Mikhail Gorbachev’s high level meetings with Chinese leaders and was anxious to return to Tokyo but unfortunately the night before the massacre. That left AP Beijing photo editor Mark Avery, New Delhi based AP photographer Liu Heung Shing and myself to cover one of the biggest stories of the 20th century. After sneaking into the Beijing Hotel with the help of an American college student named Kirk Martsen, I managed to get one fairly sharp frame of Tank Man from the 5th floor balcony of the Beijing Hotel with an 800mm focal length lens. I had run out of film and Martsen managed to find a single roll of 100 ASA from a tourist. The problem was it was 100 speed and I usually used 800. This meant that when I was eyeballing the light, I was three stops too low on the Nikon FE2 auto shutter speed. It was a miracle that the picture came out at all. It wasn’t tack sharp but good enough to front almost every newspaper in the world the next day.
I never dreamed the image would turn into a cult thing. I guess the first time I realized I had something was when David Turnley of the Detroit Free Press told me that he thought I would win a Pulitzer for the image. As fate would have it, David won it that year and I was a finalist. It’s funny because I recall being in the middle of a Bangkok slum that year and around the corner came a familiar face. It was Pulitzer Prize winner Stan Grossfeld who I had previously met. His first words were “Widener…you was robbed”.

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.”

"Sometimes it’s not enough for a photographer to be in the right place at the right time, you have to capture the perfect moment as well"

A lone man stops a column of tanks near Tiananmen Square, 1989 Beijing, China

Jeff Widener/AP

Via PetaPixel


The Famous Tiananmen Square Tank Man Photo From Slightly Different Views

"The iconic version we’ve come to know is only one of 4 very similar photos taken that same moment.

Each photographer: AP photographer Jeff Widener, Newsweek photographer Charlie Cole, Magnum photographer Stuart Franklin, and Reuters photographer Arthur Tsang all captured almost the exact same moment from slightly different perspectives."



Jeff Widener's photograph is featured in the forthcoming exhibition: "People Get Ready: The Struggle For Human Rights" at Monroe Gallery of Photography, June 22 - September 2, 2012.


Related: JEFF WIDENER: Tiananmen Square Tank Man

WEEK IN REVIEW: Selected Photography Stories

Supermarket Pickets, New Jersey, 1963 © Steve Schapiro,

Monroe Gallery of Photography, Santa Fe

La Lettre de la Photographie has a wrap-up of the 2012 edition of Photo LA, reported by Jeff Dunus with a slide show of highlights here.

Vivian Maier: September 28, 1959, 108th St. East, New York

©Maloof Collection, Ltd.

 

Art Critic Roberta Smith of The New York Times writes a review of 2 concurrent Vivian Maier exhibitions in New York. The exhibition "Vivian Maier: Discovered" opens at Monroe Gallery of Photography on February 3, and continues through April 22.

Grey Villet: Mildred and Richard Loving

The International Center of Photography opened the exhibition "The Lovings Story: Photographs by Grey Villet".  The Amsterman News has the most recent article about this remarkable collection of photographs, taken by Life magazine photographer Grey Villet:

"Brown v. Board of Education. Plessy v. Ferguson. The list of notable court cases that blazed the trail for civil rights in our nation is long, but there is one case that many have forgotten but is no less important: Loving v. Virginia."

More about the Lovings photographs here.


Raw File Blog covers Tim Mantoani's  new book Behind Photographs: Archiving Photographic Legends. "The Tank Man of Tienanmen Square. Muhammad Ali standing over Sonny Liston in victory. The portrait of the Afghan Girl on the cover of National Geographic. Many of us can automatically recall these photos in our heads, but far fewer can name the photographers who took them. Even fewer know what those photographers look like." We are very proud that several of Monroe gallery's photographers are featured.

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