Tank Man - Jeff Widener

This is an incredible story and background from the photographer that took the incredibly powerful photo of "Tank Man" in front of a line of tanks in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests

I went out to the balcony and crouched behind the metal railing. There was a long line of tanks approaching from the Square and I thought it might be a nice compression shot. Then suddenly a man in a white long sleeved shirt with two shopping bags, walked into the middle of the Chang'an Boulevard directly in front of the tanks. I complained to Kirk and said “This guy is going to screw up my composition”. Kirk yelled “They are going to kill him!” My head was still in a daze so compared to what I had witnessed over the previous day, a guy standing in front of a row of tanks seemed normal. The unfolding drama was very far away. I waited for the instant the man would be shot or run over. But nothing happened. He unbelievably crawled up on the tank and I looked back at the bed where my teleconver was. I had to make a quick decision as to whether to risk getting a closer, clearer image or possibly miss a photo completely. I made one of the biggest gambles in my life and dived for the bed. I grabbed the teleconverter, attached it to the 400mm lens which now made it an 800mm focal length, eyeballed the light and opened the aperture ring for an estimated exposure of 1/250 of a second at F11. It was a rather slow shutter speed for such a powerful telephoto lens but, I felt I could manage it. Since the next hotel room wall jutted out, I was partially blocked so I had to risk exposing myself to gunfire by leaning over the balcony and shooting around the wall. The man jumped off the tank and made one last stand. I snapped an image, then a second, then a third. In shock, I noticed the automatic shutter speed needle was pointing at between 1/30 and 1/60 of a second and not 1/250. Before I could figure out what happened, the lone man was carried off by bystanders and was never seen again.

I love the story. Journalists and photojournalists do incredible things.