Every now and then I come across an image I find truly unforgettable that reminds me of the power of photojournalism. A few years ago, it was this image.

On July
5th 1989, Tank Man, or the
"Unknown Rebel" as he has been more elegantly named, became one of the most famous icons of the 20th century.
Photographed by Jeff Widener of Associated Press, the lone figure shown in the photo
above (whose name has never been confirmed) walked out in front of the oncoming
tanks that were descending upon Tiananmen Square

The man was eventually pulled back into the crowds and neither caught nor had his identity discovered, although what happened to the rest of Beijing afterwards is well documented. But what stuck in my mind about this image, as a single man halts the vehicle’s passage, is how it communicates so clearly and accurately without any need for background, context or captions. You could have seen nor heard anything about what happened in Deng’s China that day, but here is an image which in a split second, shows a story about both heroism and defiance in crystal clarity. It transcends all
words, languages and cultures – an image that could speak to any man, woman
and child . It is said that as a result of this moment, more
eyes were laid upon the Unknown Rebel than had ever set their gaze upon
"Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein and James Joyce combined" [Source: Time
Magazine – who incidentally named the Unknown Rebel to their list of 100 most
influential figures of the 20th century).

For so many reasons, this remains one of the most powerful images every
recorded. It carries with it reach and accessibility of hope, inspiration and fear in a way that
few other mediums could come close to recording.