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Twenty-three years ago today, Jeff Widener ran out of film duringthe most important assignment of his life. The brutal crackdown at Tiananmen Square was underway andWidener, a photographer for the Associated Press, was sent tothe square to capture the scene. "I rode a bicycle to theBeijing Hotel," Widener says. "Upon my arrival, Ihad to get past several Chinese security police in the lobby. Ifthey stopped and searched me, they would have found all my gearand film hidden in my clothes." But there, in the shadowsof the hotel entrance, he saw a long-haired college kid wearinga dirty Rambo t-shirt, shorts and sandals. "I yelled out,‘Hi Joe! Where you been?' and then whispered that Iwas from AP." Widener remembers. He asked to go to theyoung man's room. "He picked up on it," saysWidener, "and out of the corner of my eye I could see theapproaching security men turn away, thinking I was a hotelguest." The young man was an American. His name was Kirk Martsen. Martsen told Widener that he was lucky to arrive when he did. Justa few minutes earlier, some hotel guests had been shot by apassing military truck full of Chinese soldiers. Martsen saidhotel staff members had dragged the bodies back in the hotel andthat he had barely escaped with his life. From a hotel balcony,Widener was able to take pictures with a long lens but then he ranout of film. So he sent Martsen on a desperate hunt for more,and Martsen returned with one single roll of Fuji colornegative. It was on this film that Widener captured one ofthe most iconic images in history, the lone protester facingdown a row of Chinese tanks. "After I made the image, I asked Kirk if he could smuggle myfilm out of the hotel on his bicycle to the AP office at theDiplomatic Compound," Widener says. "He agreed to dothis for me as I had to stay in the hotel and wait for moresupplies and could not risk being found out. I watched Kirk frommy balcony, which was right over the area where thesecurity was. In what seemed to be an eternity, Kirk unlockedhis bike and started to pedal off, although a bit awkwardlybecause all my film was stashed in his underwear. Five hourslater, a call to Mark Avery at the AP office in Beijingconfirmed that the film had arrived and beentransmitted world-wide. What I did not know until 20 years laterwas what actually transpired after Kirk pedaled the bicycleaway." On the 20th anniversary of Tiananmen Square, I wrote an article detailing each story behind the four different versions of theiconic scene on the Lens blog of the New York Times . At the time of publication, Widener wasn't sure if theyoung man's name was Kirk or Kurt. Soon after,Widener says, that changed: "I was on the computer andthat familiar ‘You've Got Mail' rang out on AOL.I could not believe who it was from. After 20 years, Kirk hadfound me because of the article in the New York Times ." Widener discovered that Martsen encountered gunfire and moresoldiers after he left with the precious film and that he becamelost trying to navigate back streets to find the AssociatedPress office. Martsen went to the U.S. embassy and handed overthe film to a U.S. Marine at the entrance, and told the embassyto forward the film to the AP office. "Kirk risked his life," Widener says. "If not forall of his efforts, my pictures may never have been seen." The next day, the image appeared on the front pages of newspapersaround the world. We are high quality suppliers, our products such as China Hot Die Forging Press , Servo Motor Press Manufacturer for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits Hydraulic Press Machine.
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