"A New Angle on History"

New perspectives on historical tales told time and time again are always refreshing, almost like watching your favorite television show or reading your favorite book but through the eyes of an ancillary character or narrator. Kind of.

As such, it must be noted that today is the 20th 'anniversary' of the march on Tianamen Square in Beijing in response to oppressive Communist Chinese government and the bloody weeks that lead up to that fateful day. One cannot speak of those protests without mentioning 'Tank Man,' the iconic photograph that remains a symbol for protest today.

To commemorate the anniversary of the protest and the photograph, Lens, a superb photography blog on NYTimes.com, had four of the photographers who initially released photographs of the man standing in the way of the tanks share their experiences.

What really struck me was the blog posted today relating to a brand new image first published today by journalist Terril Jones. The NYTimes blogger does an effective job of summarizing what's going on in the image:

"Mr. Jones’ angle on the historic encounter is vastly different from four other versions shot that day, taken at eye level moments before the tanks stopped at the feet of the lone protester. Wildly chaotic, a man ducks in the foreground, reacting from gunfire coming from the tanks. Another flashes a near-smile. Another pedals his bike, seemingly passive as the tanks rumble towards confrontation."

What we see here is a completely new point of view as to what is going on. Personal accounts, news articles and books can all say exactly what it was like, but all we really ever had was that small frame from those famous photographs. I remember (briefly) learning about the events and being told that the streets were empty except for that one man, which made the photograph more powerful of course, but I always wondered what the rest of the scene looked like.