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http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/behind-the-scenes-a-new-angle-on-history/
June 4, 2009, 11:47 am [<h2 class="entry-title">Behind the Scenes: A New Angle on History[</h2>
By [<a target=_blank href="http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/author/patrick-witty/" class="url fn" title="See all posts by Patrick Witty">Patrick Witty[</a>
Terril Jones had only shown the photograph to friends.
While working as a reporter in Beijing during the Tiananmen Squareprotests of 1989, he shot many photographs and recorded several hoursof video. It wasn’t until weeks afterwards, when he had returned toJapan, that he discovered the magnitude of what he had captured — aniconic 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 [<a target=_blank href="http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/03/behind-the-scenes-tank-man-of-tiananmen/">the accounts of the other four photographers in Wednesday’s Lens blog[</a>.
Mr. Jones’ angle on the historic encounter is vastly different fromfour other versions shot that day, taken at eye level moments beforethe tanks stopped at the feet of the lone protester. Wildly chaotic, aman ducks in the foreground, reacting from gunfire coming from thetanks. Another flashes a near-smile. Another pedals his bike, seeminglypassive as the tanks rumble towards confrontation.
The photograph encourages the viewer to reevaluate the famousencounter. Unlike the other four versions, we are given a sense of whatit was like on the ground as the tanks heaved forward, the man’s act ofdefiance 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 thisphoto. I had been running on little sleep since students began a hungerstrike in Tiananmen Square on May 13, and I had been trading shiftswith other A.P. reporters, staffing the square 24/7 for nearly threeweeks.
Adrenaline and the drive to stay close to the action took me back tothe street on June 5. I was in front of the Beijing Hotel and I couldhear tanks revving up and making their way toward us from Tiananmen. Iwent closer to the street and looked down Changan Avenue over severalrows of parked bicycles when another volley of shots rang out fromwhere the tanks were, and people began ducking, shrieking, stumblingand running toward me. I lifted my camera and squeezed off a singleshot before retreating back behind more trees and bushes where hundredsof onlookers were cowering. I didn’t know quite what I had taken otherthan tanks coming toward me, soldiers on them shooting in my direction,and people fleeing.
I stayed in Beijing for another month, until after Tiananmen Squareand the Gate of Heavenly Peace were reopened to the public. It was onlysome time after I returned to Tokyo that, as I was going through mynegatives, I printed this photo and noticed that I, too, had capturedthe so-called “tank man,” but from a completely different angle. He issmall but unmistakable as he stands in the center of Changan Jie,clearly positioning himself for a confrontation with the approachingarmy. I was stunned to see him in my photo because his image had becomea global icon of the events in Beijing. But I made the discoveryseveral weeks after the fact, and the A.P. had already sent out adefining photo of that moment. So I filed away my picture, along with acouple of hundred more, and six hours of videotape that I had takenover 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 haverealized what was unfolding before my eyes. But while I missed thetimeliest opportunity to share this photo in 1989, today is anappropriate time to pull it out finally from its decades-old wraps.
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发表于 6-4-2009 20:07:39
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