0:00 On June 5, 1989, a man carrying two shopping bags stopped a column of tanks on Chang’an Avenue in Beijing.0:08 And he did it the day AFTER the massacre.0:11 That’s the part people forget.0:13 The violence had already happened.0:16 The crackdown was complete.0:18 And then this one person just… walks out.0:21 Right.0:22 Last week on the show we talked about the stories behind iconic photographs, and this one might be the most powerful of them all.0:32 So who actually took it?0:33 Whose eye was behind that lens?0:36 It was an Associated Press photographer named Jeff Widener.0:40 And the craziest part?0:42 He almost missed it.0:44 He was on the fourth-floor balcony of the Beijing Hotel, injured, using a heavy teleconverter lens just to see the street.0:53 A teleconverter?0:54 So he was pretty far away.0:56 Waaay far away.0:57 And at first, when he sees this guy walk into his frame, he's annoyed.1:03 He thinks the man is ruining his composition of the tanks.1:07 Wait, really?1:08 He thought the subject of one of the most famous photos in history was just… in the way?1:15 For a split second.1:17 Then he realizes what's happening.1:19 The lead tank stops.1:21 It tries to go around him.1:23 The man just sidesteps to block it again.1:26 And Widener just starts shooting.1:29 He only got three frames.1:30 Only one of them was sharp.1:33 That’s the one we all know.1:35 But I’ve heard other versions of that photo exist.1:39 So he wasn’t the only one there?1:41 No, and that’s a critical part of the story.1:44 Stuart Franklin from Magnum Photos was on another balcony.1:49 Charlie Cole from Newsweek was there, too.1:52 Cole actually had to hide his film roll in the hotel toilet tank to keep the Public Security Bureau from confiscating it.2:02 Wow.2:02 So the risk was immense.2:04 You have no idea.2:05 They were documenting something the government was actively trying to erase in real time.2:12 But Widener’s photo was the one that got out first.2:16 It hit the AP wire, and from there, it went global.2:20 It became the symbol before the other images even had a chance.2:25 Okay, so let's talk about the man himself.2:28 Do we know anything?2:29 Who was he?2:30 That is the question.2:32 The short answer is no.2:34 We don't know his name, and we don't know his fate.2:38 The most common theory is that he was a 19-year-old student named Wang Weilin, but it's never been confirmed.2:46 So this whole encounter… how long did it last?2:50 Not long.2:50 Maybe five minutes total.2:52 He stands there, has this silent standoff with the tank driver.2:57 At one point, he even climbs UP onto the hull of the lead tank.3:02 He climbed on it?3:03 I’ve never heard that part.3:05 Oh yeah.3:06 He speaks to the crew inside, though we don’t know what was said.3:11 Then he climbs down, and a moment later, two figures in blue rush out, grab him, and hurry him away into the crowd.3:20 We never see him again.3:22 And we don’t know who they were?3:24 Government agents?3:26 Concerned citizens trying to save him?3:29 Exactly.3:29 It’s a complete mystery.3:31 The ambiguity is part of its power.3:34 He just vanishes from history, leaving only this image.3:38 It really is the ultimate David and Goliath picture.3:42 One person, with shopping bags, against a weapon of the state.3:47 It is.3:47 But the pattern we see over and over is that the image becomes a legend in the West, while it’s aggressively censored at home.3:57 In China today, an entire generation has grown up having never seen that photograph.4:04 The event is scrubbed from their internet, from their history books.4:09 So the photograph becomes more powerful than the memory of the event itself, at least for the rest of the world.4:17 I think so.4:18 It raises the real question for people in my line of work.4:23 Is the icon the photograph itself?4:25 Or is it the act of defiance?4:28 The photo is just the evidence.4:30 The thing that proves it happened.4:33 The real story is a man, whose name we'll never know, who decided to stand.4:38 And you have to wonder… what makes a person do that?
