A new angle on history -- tank man Terril Jones had only shown the photograph to friends. While working as a reporter in Beijing during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, he shot many photographs and recorded several hours of video. It wasn’t until weeks afterwards, when he had returned to Japan, that he discovered the magnitude of what he had captured — an iconic moment in history from an entirely unique angle. His version of the tank man has never been published until now. For 20 years the negatives rested in Mr. Jones’ belongings, following him across the world throughout his career as a journalist. He contacted The New York Times after reading the accounts of the other four photographers in Wednesday’s Lens blog. Mr. Jones’ angle on the historic encounter is vastly different from four other versions shot that day, taken at eye level moments before the tanks stopped at the feet of the lone protester. Wildly chaotic, a man ducks in the foreground, reacting from gunfire coming from the tanks. Another flashes a near-smile. Another pedals his bike, seemingly passive as the tanks rumble towards confrontation. The photograph encourages the viewer to reevaluate the famous encounter. Unlike the other four versions, we are given a sense of what it was like on the ground as the tanks heaved forward, the man’s act of defiance escalated by the flight of others. Mr. Jones shared his experience in an e-mail message to The Times: I was extremely high strung by June 5 when I took this photo. I had been running on little sleep since students began a hunger strike in Tiananmen Square on May 13, and I had been trading shifts with other A.P. reporters, staffing the square 24/7 for nearly three weeks. Adrenaline and the drive to stay close to the action took me back to the street on June 5. I was in front of the Beijing Hotel and I could hear tanks revving up and making their way toward us from Tiananmen. I went closer to the street and looked down Changan Avenue over several rows of parked bicycles when another volley of shots rang out from where the tanks were, and people began ducking, shrieking, stumbling and running toward me. I lifted my camera and squeezed off a single shot before retreating back behind more trees and bushes where hundreds of onlookers were cowering. I didn’t know quite what I had taken other than tanks coming toward me, soldiers on them shooting in my direction, and people fleeing. I stayed in Beijing for another month, until after Tiananmen Square and the Gate of Heavenly Peace were reopened to the public. It was only some time after I returned to Tokyo that, as I was going through my negatives, I printed this photo and noticed that I, too, had captured the so-called “tank man,” but from a completely different angle. He is small but unmistakable as he stands in the center of Changan Jie, clearly positioning himself for a confrontation with the approaching army. I was stunned to see him in my photo because his image had become a global icon of the events in Beijing. But I made the discovery several weeks after the fact, and the A.P. had already sent out a defining photo of that moment. So I filed away my picture, along with a couple of hundred more, and six hours of videotape that I had taken over three weeks of growing demonstrations. I never published them, and only showed them to a few friends and fellow reporters. But they were never far from my mind. I’ve always regretted not staying in place longer 20 years ago, despite the gunshots, and taken more photos, so that I might have realized what was unfolding before my eyes. But while I missed the timeliest opportunity to share this photo in 1989, today is an appropriate time to pull it out finally from its decades-old wraps.
Not a very good photo. Without the inconic showdown-photo, you wouldn't even see what was going on in this one.
our resident totalitarian apologist seems to need reminding: <object width="853" height="505"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/9-nXT8lSnPQ&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/9-nXT8lSnPQ&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="853" height="505"></embed></object>
since you're our resident assclown, and since it's been discussed of late, a fact of which you apparently seem to need reminding, where does legalized torture fit into your anti-totalitarian agenda? Feel free to start a new thread on it.
The saddest tragedy in modern Chinese history is the crackdown, torture and murder of peaceful Falun Gong worshippers. I've never seen anyone so fearful of meditation and peace loving people as the rogues in Chinese government. History will judge China harshly due to this.
Your hero, George W. Bush, certainly thought so, as does his running buddy, Dick, who continues to babble his nonsense. Honestly, where did your absurd comment come from? Sam has consistently pissed off all the China Apologists on the board. Goofus.
People either brutally ignore the facts or the youngsters may never have a chance to learn the truth. In another decade or so, when most of the parents of those kids (whom were killed in the incident) die, perhaps no one else will care about what happened in the summer of year 1989 anymore. We shall never let that happen. We shall always remind our young comrades and hopefully one day, justice prevails. Those who were sacrificed and dead in the incident may gain their fame back.
dude, you really haven't been paying attention (and i respect that about you, hopefully, you been off have hot, sweaty Saturday morning ex-hippie sex with the missus), if you think W is my hero. I do respect him, and for that matter, Biggus Dickus. i don't respect Obama (mostly because he feels the need to constantly apologize for the country that has elevated him to power), nor Sam, who seems to be just a general contrarian...i have yet to see that he has any guiding principals other than "if W supported it, ahm agin' it."
...or you could ask the vast majority of Americans (students or otherwise) about American history - although the reasons for ignorance are different.
And how do I show "principals" bro - would that be by posting a youtube video? A blog post and a song lyric? "Magic Negro" puns in foreign languages? Or - wait for it - you knew it was coming.....copying a blog post from another website, and then editing a few words in and pretending it's your own...? ....all followed by disappearing from the worthless thread you started and offering no comment at all. I have many, many posts on this forum. Many of them are quite lengthy, read them if you want. Or not. But spare us the silliness that you, the king of the "one-line-troll-thread and-run" technique, are bombarding us with substance. You know why you're here and so does everybody else.
Unfortunately there's been many tragedies in modern Chinese history. Its sad that the CCP is determined to keep this quiet and hopefully someday there will be a public recognition of this event for Chinese history and a greater openness for the PRC so those who died at Tiananment wouldn't have given their lives in vain.
That's some precious experience, care to share with us your thoughts at that time and what happened that evening? I joined one of the demonstrations in Hong Kong too. I had to take public examinations that year and I still remembered one of the exams was postponed due to typhoon.
Same thing will happen to our fellow Chinese students if they were asked about June 4 one or two decades later if we choose to ignore or forget the truth.
Hold the phone, are you serious - you are saying you actually went there to jeer and protest the protesters? I didn't know that anybody actually did that, it explains a lot if so.
