Tank Man

Tank Man, the name given to this image, was taken on June 5, 1989 at Tiananmen Square in Beijing while massive protests were being met with deathly military intervention. An unknown man stepped in front of a line of tanks, actually halting them in their progress to break up a large protest. Know one knows who this man is or what happened to him after his act of bravery was captured on film. This photograph is one of the most iconic in history, a symbol against oppression not only for what was happening in China but worldwide. Though this event was also captured on video, the photograph remains to be a famous image.

Four photographers captured the ‘Tank Man’ moment.

Charlie Cole took his picture from the balcony of the Beijing Hotel. Because of the Public Security Bureau (PSB) in China, it was dangerous to hold evidence of such an event. He replaced the roll of film containing what would be known as Tank Man with a blank roll into his camera. To throw off the inevitable search of his room, he sacrificed a roll of film containing pictures of wounded protesters knowing the PSB would not be satisfied with a blank roll of film. He then hid the Tank Man film in the tank of the hotel toilet, just an hour before the PSB barged into his room, taking the two rolls of film Cole had set out for them to take. Later, Cole was able to retrieve the film from the toilet tank and develop the photo to send it to Newsweek. Something like that I feel would be difficult to do with a digital image unless perhaps he carried multiple memory cards.

Stuart Franklin was with Cole when he photographed Tank Man, working for Time magazine. Like other photographers, he had to be mindful of his film. Running out of it was not an option (like we have to worry about that now in the digital age). Franklin was able to capture the shot, a wider image than the others. He later smuggled his film out in a box of tea.

Arthur Tsang Hin Wah was also in Beijing Hotel. He had been hurt by students a few days before when they mistook him for a spy and was suffering from a concussion. Security actually kept him from leaving the hotel, enabling him to get several shots of Tank Man. The imaged used from his film was both of the man standing in front of the tanks and then a few seconds later of the man climbing up the tank. When other photographer’s shots of the man standing before the tank were very popular, the editor took Arthur’s photograph that matched the others.

Jeff Widener took the shot also from a balcony in the Beijing Hotel, his photo a little tighter than Cole’s was. He only had a single roll of film left after photographing the violence on the protesters. Widener also only had a small camera and had to fit a teleconverter onto it in order to have a viewable image and his shutter speed was very slow for the image he was trying to capture. A college student who was helping Widener smuggled the film out to be developed and sent. Hours later, Widener got messages that his photograph was being used in thousands of newspapers all over the world. His was the photograph most used of the four known photographers. About as close to ‘going viral’ as you can get in the 80’s. 

I chose this image not because of its technological importance or because the photography is particularly artistic or innovative. I chose it because of what the photographers had to go through to get this image to the public and for the public's response to this image. This photograph is one to have been printed and reprinted in every newspaper all over the world, showing nearly every country the bravery of one man in China, and the risks the photographers took in order for that moment in time to be shared with the world. It created a shift in view of the public, becoming the single symbol of the

Tiananmen Square protests and one of the most iconic images of the 20^th century. This image, however, has been censored in China and many people there have no knowledge of the incident.

Witty, Patrick. "Behind the Scenes: Tank Man of Tiananmen." Lens. The New York

Times, 3 June 2009. Web. 29 Mar. 2014. <http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/03/behind-the-scenes-tank-man-of-tiananmen/>.