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Tiananmen Square photographer
says he's 'no hero'
By C. Ann Jensen
January 30, 2008 | Jeff Widener admits to being scared
when he took one of the most famous photographs in history.
"I'm no hero. I'm a chicken," he said.
Widener, the photographer of the Tiananmen Square
tank photo, spoke last week to students and community
members in the Taggart Student Center Ballroom.
Widener commented on his experience as an Associated
Press photographer in China during 1989's Tiananmen
Square Massacre as well as his 30 years in photography.
He showcased some of his work in a slide show.
Widener has shot photos since he was 15, working at
a Jack in the Box restaurant, in an under-the-table
deal, and illegally in high school to buy his Nikon
camera gear. After college he got his first job as a
photojournalist by looking in the classifieds of a newspaper
in California.
During his presentation in the Ballroom, Widener was
asked if I he t hought he was a hero. He responded "I'm
no hero. . . . It scared the crap out of me to shoot
in war zones and those kinds of areas."
Widener explained that in order for him to get into
the hotel to take pictures of Tiananmen Square, he had
to disassemble his camera, putting the lens in his Levi's
jacket, his camera in his back pocket, and his film
in his underwear.
Of his photo from Tiananmen Square, Widener said, "I
have it on my wall with a famous cartoon above it. Every
time I look at it I think to myself, 'I can't believe
it's mine and that I got out alive.' As far as what
it [the photo] means to me, I think it means you have
to fight for your rights, the same way we did with the
British. When I look at it, I think of how close I came
to not having it."
Widener looks like an average middle-aged white male.
You wouldn't spot Widener in a crowed and say, "That's
the guy who shot that famous photo." With his shaggy,
mostly salted hair and tanned skin from living in Hawaii,
Widener considers himself to be an observer trying to
capture life rather than a photographer trying to take
a great shot.
"I like to photograph everything. " Widener said "It's
not a picture as much as a feeling. That's what I'm
looking for. I want to pull the soul out of the viewer.
I want the image to do something, evoke a memory, like
a song does. A photograph can do a lot of things; photos
are very powerful."
The world has told Widener what its favorite image
of his is, nominating his photo from Tiananmen Square
for a Pulitzer Prize, but Widener said in a way, every
new image is my new favorite.
"It's such a blast to see a new image born," said
Widener. "I started shooting at age 12 and now I'm 51,
but I feel even more jazzed as the years go by. I just
can't think of anything I would rather do than photograph
humanity in all its twisted glory."
Now based in Honolulu, working for the Honolulu
Advertiser, he has started work on a book of photography
that captures the unseen side of Hawaii.
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