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NYTimes goes behind the scenes w/the Tank Man of Tiananmen photo(s)

Turns out there were actually four “Tank Man” photos, shot from the roof and upper balconies of the nearby Beijing Hotel as photographers were kept off the streets by martial law restrictions. Even at this distance, the photographers had to engage in some artful trickery to keep the film rolls from falling into the hands of Chinese security. Some good quotes:

From Charlie Cole:

It is regretful that this image alone has become the iconic “mother” of the Tiananmen tragedy. This tends to overshadow all the other tremendous work that other photographers did up to and during the crackdown. Some journalists were killed during this coverage and almost all risked being shot at one time or another.

From Jeff Widener:

As I entered the A.P. office, which was located at the diplomatic compound, I read a message from A.P. headquarters in New York. “We don’t want anyone to take any unnecessary risk but if someone could please photograph Tiananmen Square, we would appreciate it.” Boy, that was not what I wanted to read following the terror I witnessed the night before.

The version swiped above was taken by Stuart Franklin who reports that “the film was smuggled out in a packet of tea by a French student.”