Showing posts with label Tiananmen Square. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tiananmen Square. Show all posts

Monday, May 9, 2022

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.

Friday, May 31, 2019

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.


Tuesday, June 3, 2014

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




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

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 25th 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.

Friday, August 23, 2013

"Those Who Dared is a sort of collective retrospective of people and events that shaped the twentieth century"

Harry Benson, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Vermont, 1982, archival pigment print, 16” x 20”


Via THE Magazine

THOSE WHO DARED, AN EXHIBITION OF PHOTOGRAPHY AT MONROE GALLERY

 

expands on the organization’s longstanding program of showcasing significant historical figures and events with imagery that’s often political and always provocative. With a grouping of works that spans decades and continents, the exhibition functions like a historical survey: a who’s who of people most of us know for their achievements. As such, Those Who Dared is a sort of collective retrospective of people and events that shaped the twentieth century. It’s also surprisingly cohesive, despite the huge range of personalities—from Martin Luther King, Jr. to Jacques Cousteau to Ai WeiWei—who may represent disparate aims and causes, but whose actions display human qualities united in goals of exploration, persistence, and boundary-breaking.

Among the most recognizable images is that of a man standing before a row of four military tanks; Jeff Widener’s 1989 Tiananmen Square photograph is still gripping despite its widespread reproduction. The tanks, lined up in robotic and chilling precision, make an impactful and grotesque juxtaposition to the poignantly small human figure facing them down. Other photographs capture lesser-known figures, and these are some of my favorites. When art can teach us about people whose actions have directly affected our lives, it behaves as a bridge between history’s purely intellectual resonance and its equally important, though more nebulous, spiritual or emotional resonance. Atender shot of Richard and Mildred Loving embracing does just this. Mildred was black and Richard was white, and their 1967 Virginia marriage resulted in prison sentences for each. The very idea of a law preventing interracial marriage now seems shudderingly backwards, but the couple’s tribulations ultimately resulted in a resounding victory. The Supreme Court unanimously ruled to strike down the law, and its abolishment paved the way for similar legislation throughout the country. For decades, Loving v. Virginia has been cited in numerous cases involving discrimination.

A 1978 vertical snapshot of Anwar Sadat by Eddie Adams pictures the Egyptian president looking out of a narrow window. The scene feels a bit tense, with a pallid pool of sunlight spread across the room’s dark carpet. Sadat, partially obscured in shadow, looks out of an open window, his hands resting on the sill. Among the few color photographs on display is an image of Aung San Suu Kyi. Also taken by Eddie Adams, the picture captures Suu Kyi in a meditative stance, her hands clasped together against her chest, with yellow flowers in her hair. One of the planet’s most prominent political prisoners, Suu Kyi has fearlessly stood up against oppression in her homeland of Burma for decades. Deeply influenced by the non-violent teachings of Mahatma Gandhi (who also makes an appearance in this exhibition), Suu Kyi famously said, “It is not power that corrupts, but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.”

The exhibition includes images whose interpretations and implications are decidedly less straightforward. One of the standouts is a shot of Russian novelist and historian Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Best known for the novella One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and the sweeping Gulag Archipelago, Solzhenitsyn was a bold and outspoken critic of Communism— decrying the brutish Soviet Union during times when it could have proved fatal. A 1982 photograph of him by Harry Benson is mysterious and beautiful. It depicts the black-clad, heavily bearded Solzhenitsyn in the middle of a Vermont snowscape. He arches backward, his large hands spread out across his chest. His mouth is slightly open and his eyes are closed. His posture suggests a number of possibilities: relief or reflection or ecstasy—all of them intimate and recognizable in their humanity. It’s a deeply touching and unexpectedly meditative take on such an outspoken personality.
 
This exhibition seems like a gift for those of us lucky enough to spend time with it and learn from it. Iris Murdoch once wrote that art’s purest goal and highest achievement must be “to tell the only truth that ultimately matters.”

This captivating exhibition serves as a beautiful testament to those who ultimately mattered.

 

—Iris McLister
 
The exhibition continues throuugh September 22, 2013.

 

Thursday, August 15, 2013

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



 
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



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





Friday, June 21, 2013

"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”.

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Thursday, May 10, 2012

"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



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

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

JEFF WIDENER: Tiananmen Square Tank Man


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


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