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Casualties. jan wong along with some other journalists retreated to a room at the beijing hotel which overlooks the square. the rest of the night, we just watched this carnage unfold. this is about the worst you can do to your own citizens, and they re doing it. that armored personnel group, as it worked its way down the main street toward tiananmen square, was firing at demonstrators. it was a bloodbath. i mean, you have one side with military-grade weapons, and then you have people in their summer dresses with their children. it s a massacre. the next day, ap still photographer, jeff widner convinces a man he just met named kirk to let him camp out in his room at the beijing hotel. jeff shoots photos until he runs out of film, but kirk locates one roll and gives it to jeff. i had one roll of film and had to make it last. by the morning of june 5th, the siege of tiananmen square is nearly over, and most of the protesters have fled. ....
But there is one act of defiance yet to come. one that will live on forever. so i get wakened up by this sound of tanks coming down the street. as i m looking through the camera, i notice it s really far away. it s a nice composition. it s nice compression and some guy walks out. from a different floor of the hotel, jan wong is watching the same row of tanks. i saw this lone man stepping in front of them. i couldn t believe it. i immediately started crying because i just knew i was going to witness him getting smashed, like hamburger. i see the tank try to go around him. i see him jump to the one side to stop it. i see the tank turn, twist, and try to go around him, and i see him stop it, too. i m going, this is unbelievable. he s standing there and i said, okay, i know what they re going to do. they re just going to shoot him. i m just waiting for the incident. jeff snaps the shutter on his nikon. finally he crawls up on the ....
Whole country erupted in these protests, and they were stunning. jan wong lived in china in the 1970s as a student and returned as a reporter for the toronto globe and mail in the late 80s. there was the beginning of opening dissent. i was quite surprised because i d never seen spontaneous political protests in china. in beijing, a million chinese were on the streets. people who lived all their lives taking orders from the government and the communist party. now openly defying authority. tiananmen square became the focal point of the protests. the square is right in front of the great hall of the people, where the seat of chinese government is. it was mind-boggling. i was in the middle of that march. i m 6 2 . i weigh 200 pounds. i was literally swept off my feet by those demonstrators. photojournalist jeff widner covered it for the associated press. there was this amazing, uplifting feeling in the air. a few weeks later in mid-may, the situation intensified when ....
Top. he tries to get up to the turret so he can talk to them. as the tank begins to move, the man jumps in front once again and reestablishes the standoff. eventually, a few bystanders rush over and push the man out of the way. my thought is, how do i tell the world what i ve just seen? not knowing that in the rest of the hotel, there was photographers, tv cameras. within hours, chinese police raid the hotel, looking for photographers and videographers who may have captured the event. but jeff has given his film to kirk who smuggles it out in his underwear and gets it to the u.s. embassy. the next day, jeff s photograph appears on the cover of dozens of newspapers around the globe, and the video footage captured by two different news crews at the hotel captivates the world. ....
Said, okay, i know what they re going to do. they re just going to shoot him. i m just waiting for the incident. jeff snaps the shutter on his nikon. finally he crawls up on the top. he tries to get up to the turret so he can talk to them. as the tank begins to move, the man jumps in front once again and reestablishes the standoff. eventually, a few bystanders rush over and push the man out of the way. my thought is, how do i tell the world what i ve just seen? not knowing that in the rest of the hotel, there was photographers, tv cameras. within hours, chinese police raid the hotel, looking for photographers and videographers who may have captured the event. but jeff has given his film to kirk who smuggles it out in his underwear and gets it to the u.s. embassy. the next day, jeff s photograph appears on the cover of dozens of newspapers around the globe, and the video footage captured by two different news crews at the hotel captivates the world. the question, burning in ....