Time, No. 25, Vol. 133, 19 June 1989, cover, pp. 10-11 (variants) S. Franklin, The Documentary Impulse, London: Phaidon, 2016, p. 123 (variant)
Catalogue Essay
This photograph is one of the most iconic pictures of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. Captured by British documentary photographer Stuart Franklin, it was first published as the cover of Time and then reproduced widely to document the uprising in Beijing. A modern-day iteration of David and Goliath, the man standing in front of the tank is an iconic symbol of courage and defiance The Guardian defined the image as ‘the icon of the revolution’, and the photograph earned Franklin a World Press Photo Award in 1990.
From 1980 until 1985, Stuart Franklin (b.1956) worked with Agence Presse Sygma in Paris. During that time, he photographed the civil war in Lebanon, unemployment in Britain, famine in Sudan and the Heysel Stadium disaster. Joining Magnum Photos in 1985, he became a full member in 1989 and its President between 2006 and 2009. From 1989 onward, Stuart worked on about 20 stories for National Geographic to stress ecological concerns in various parts of the world. He received an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal Photographic Society in 2003.
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