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Everybody recognizes the iconic Tank Man photo, but most people would not be able to say much about it or to eloquently explain the significance of the 1989 Chinese protests. As we approach June 4, 2009 which will mark the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, I thought it would be wise to point to an excellent documentary you can watch online by PBS’ Frontline:

Eddie Adams – Saigon Execution – photograph – 1968 – Vietnam

Henry VIII’s Wives – Iconic Moments of the 20th Century – photograph – 2007 – UK

Mark Daughhetee – Hosed – photograph – 2004 – USA

Borf Brigade – The Consolation of Ruin – 2007 – USA

Mike Stimpson – photograph – 2007 – UK

Xiang Jing – Bang! – sculpture – 2002 – China

Amnesty International – print – 2005 – New Zealand

Dolk Lundgren – Weed Killer – graffiti – 2008 – Norway

Franck Réthoré – painting – 2007 – France

Kenyon Bajus – Execution – print – 2004 – USA

Krista Wortendyke – Iconic Recall – print – USA

Notes:

• The original photo received the Pulitzer Prize for ‘Spot News Photography’ in 1969 under the name ‘Saigon Execution’. Nowadays it is often captioned as ‘General Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing a Viet Cong prisoner in Saigon’.
• For such an iconic photo and a well documented event, it is surprising that so many people cannot eloquently explain the context of this image, summarizing it to ‘a bad guy killing a good guy’. Please take a moment to learn more about the incident by clicking here and here.
• If you are aware of additional artworks derived from the original photo, please send details and links by leaving a comment or sending an email.
• If you enjoyed this post, please make sure you check back in a month or so, as additional artworks will be added.

The following was added after this post was first published.

minipliman – print – 2009 – Germany

Liu Jin – News – Wangfujing – photograph – 2001 – China