The Tank Man photograph taken by AP photographer Jeff Widener is one of the most iconic images of the 20th century -- But last week a Google search for "Tank Man" brought up an AI-generated image as the feature picture.
It has been two weeks of constant loss in the photo industry. First we lost Peter Lindbergh, then Robert Frank, and now Charlie Cole, the American photojournalist behind one of the four iconic Tank Man photos taken during the infamous 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing, has also passed away. Cole was 64 years old.
Leica was at the center of a firestorm of controversy in China earlier this month over a video that dramatized the creation of the iconic photo titled, "Tank Man". Now it turns out that all the well-known "Tank Man" photos were actually shot with Nikon cameras.
Leica has sparked a huge backlash in China over a short film released by its ad agency in Brazil. The video (warning: strong language) depicts a news photographer covering the Chinese government's crackdown during pro-democracy protests in Beijing in 1989.
You know you've established your photographic legacy when you show up as a clue on Jeopardy, and that's what happened to photographer Jeff Widener a few days ago. One of the clues on the ever-popular trivia game show focused on Widener's iconic "Tank Man" photo.
As part of their incredible "100 Most Influential Photographs of All Time" project, TIME is telling the stories behind some of the most powerful photographs in human history. You've no doubt seen Jeff Widener's iconic "Tank Man" photo ... but have you ever heard the full story behind it?
Chances are that in your lifetime, you've seen the iconic "Tank Man" photograph. The year was 1989. A man standing alone before a line of tanks on Chang'an Avenue near Tiananmen Square. It's a picture that's inspired people all over the world. It's also been heavily suppressed in the very country it was taken.
Jeff Widener is the man behind the photograph, which he says was a "lucky shot". What the world doesn't know, however, is that Widener is so much more than the photographer behind one iconic image. He's spent years in Asia chronicling the stories and struggles of people.
Yesterday was the 24th anniversary of the massacre in Tiananmen Square -- an event that has been immortalized in history by AP photographer Jeff Widener’s famous “Tank Man” photo we shared earlier today. What you may not know is that, in China, the government still does everything it can to keep the event shrouded in mystery, pretending it never happened.
The Internet, however, is having none of it, as memes depicting the tank man photo in ways that might avoid censorship nets spring up all over the place. One of the most viral is the photo you see above.
When the Chinese military moved into Beijing's Tiananmen Square on June 5, 1989 to forcibly remove pro-democracy protestors, an anonymous man famously decided to place himself in front of the long column of Chinese tanks that were rumbling into the area. Photos and videos of the incident were immediately published and broadcast around the world. AP photographer Jeff Widener's "Tank Man" photo, shown above, is widely considered to be one of the most iconic photos of the 20th century.
Most people are familiar with the famous Tank Man photo taken by AP Photographer Jeff Widener as tanks rolled into Tiananmen Square on June 5th, 1989. Taken from a 6th floor balcony of the Beijing hotel, the iconic version we've come to know is only one of 4 very similar photos taken that same moment.