Capturing a moment of incredible individual bravery, Jeff Widener’s photo of a single protestor facing down a line of tanks in Tiananmen Square in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 became a symbol of defiance against oppression.
The photo earned Widener worldwide acclaim and nomination for the 1990 Pulitzer Prize. The high vantage point of the image showed the scale of the unidentified man’s bravery, who was holding two shopping bags, grounding the act in the everyday.
Taken from his hotel window after a stray rock hit him in the head during a mob scene on the Chang-An Boulevard the previous day, Widener almost didn’t capture the famous image and had to borrow a roll of film from an Australian tourist staying in the hotel.
