RECORDING HISTORY

Tiananmen Square Tank Man Photographer Charlie Cole Dies

The award-winning photographer later said he felt it was his responsibility to show the world what was happening.

The photographer who captured the Tank Man on film during the Tiananmen Square protests—creating one of history's most famous images—has died at the age of 64, the BBC reports. Charlie Cole was one of four people who captured a photograph of the man standing in the way of a procession of tanks in what became the defining image of the 1989 pro-democracy protests in China. Cole won the 1990 World Press Photo award for his famous picture. He later said that he felt it was his responsibility to record what was happening to show the world, and described Chinese officials breaking down the door of his hotel room in a failed search for the film which he'd hidden in the bathroom. The unidentified protester was pulled away from the tanks by two men and his fate remains a mystery. Cole had been living in Bali, Indonesia, where he died last week.