Tanks rumbling past Tiananmen Square

[Ryan Goble]

Really cool article in Today's Times around the visual issues raised by the famous photos of tanks rumbling past Tiananmen Square

Check It:

June 3, 2009, 12:01 AM
Behind the Scenes: Tank Man of Tiananmen

Few images are more recognizable or more evocative. Known simply as “tank man,” it is one of the most famous photographs in recent history.

Twenty years ago, on June 5, 1989, following weeks of huge protests in Beijing and a crackdown that resulted in the deaths of hundreds, a lone man stepped in front of a column of tanks rumbling past Tiananmen Square. The moment instantly became a symbol of the protests as well as a symbol against oppression worldwide — an anonymous act of defiance seared into our collective consciousnesses.

FULL ARTICLE:
http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/03/behind-the-scenes-tank-man...

[Elizabeth Davis]

Another powerful image that came to mind was the picture by Eddie Adams that shows the South Vietnamese General executing a View Cong officer with a single shot to the head. An interesting discussion in class could be how technology (ie photos and film) have changed war and governments interaction with its citizens.

[Ryan Goble]

Actually, there is a film that deals with both these images that I didn't highlight...

******

Every year for the last fifty years, a professional jury of the World Press Photo Foundation has selected one photograph as winner of the "World Press Photo of the Year" competition. Some of these images have had such an impact on society that they have become symbols of their time - true historical icons.

LOOKING FOR AN ICON examines the process by which photos become icons, revealing that once a photo is published, social forces are at work beyond the photographer's control. The film focuses on four World Press Photo winners, including Eddie Adams's 1968 photo of the public execution of a Viet Cong prisoner, an anonymous photographer's last image of Salvador Allende during the 1973 coup, Charlie Cole's 1989 photo of a lone student confronting tanks in Tiananmen Square, and David Turnley's 1991 photo of a grieving soldier during the first Gulf War.

http://icarusfilms.com/new2007/icon.html