On October 28, 1995, Jay Cochrane walked across the sky over Qutang Gorge in the heartland of China, completing the greatest high-wire walk of all-time. In 53 minutes, he traversed the 2,098 feet at a height of 1,498 feet above the Yangtze River. Mark D Phillips used early digital technology to transmit photographs from Fengjie, China, back to the world. He is sharing his stories for the 30th Anniversary.
So I decided to take the gig and travel to China for a high-wire walk in the middle of nowhere with no idea of what any of the images might be. And it wasn’t an easy journey. Just getting the visa was difficult. I wasn’t traveling as a journalist, I was traveling as a member of Team Cochrane. I still have the jacket to prove it.
First there was the flight to Beijing where I met up with the other members of Jay’s entourage. Hai Ping Ge and Mike Wilson were the representatives from International Special Attractions, our liaison with the Chinese officials. Mike brought along his ten-year-old son, Matt. Steve Sless worked for the Trump organization in Atlantic City. Rik Paulsen was the owner of Paulsen Wire Rope, who provided the cable for Jay’s skywalk.
I was not traveling lightly. I brought a Nikon 600mm f4 lens that alone weighed 15 pounds with the metal case for transport. My inventory recorded 2 Nikon F3 bodies, 20mm 2.8, 35mm 2.8, 55mm macro 2.8, 105mm 1.8, 180mm 2.8, 300mm 2.8, 1.4x extender, 2x extender, 2 Nikon flash units, 40 rolls of Fuji Slide film (various, mainly Velvia), 20 rolls of Fuji Color negative film (various, mainly ASA 200), tripod, monopod, and Domke Bag. Because every photographer in that time period carried a Domke bag.
For two days in 1995, I was able to wander around the bustling city of Beijing. But boy was the air terrible with exhaust by the end of the day. The city was teeming with people. cars, trucks and more bicycles than I had ever seen before. Sometimes it felt like a wall of riders beside the cab I rode in. Cutting through the bike lane was nearly impossible.
My first destination was Tiananmen Square, site of a seven week protest that culminated in one of the greatest images of my lifetime, Tank Man (1989) – the Unknown Protester by Jeff Widener.
According to the website aboutphotography.com:
it is good to know that Widener was not the only one who took this kind of shot. I think his photo is the most known because it was published fastest.
My photo from 9/11 could have the same statement made.
Chinese troops began firing on demonstrators at about 1 a.m. on June 4 prior to his image. There has never been an official death toll released. Estimates range from several hundred to thousands dead.
On June 5, 1989, Widener snuck into the Beijing Hotel with the help of an American exchange student, Kirk Martsen, and photographed history from a sixth floor balcony with a 1200mm lens.
“There was always a huge risk of being arrested and having film confiscated,” Widener said in a later interview with CNN.
For several days before, the Chinese government had desperately tried to control the narrative, keeping American outlets like CNN from broadcasting live coverage of the discord. Widener and Martsen knew this. Martsen smuggled it out of the hotel, hidden in his underwear. The pictures were soon transmitted over telephone lines to the rest of the world. What a way to be first on the wire.
Tank Man is still banned in China along with anything referring to the massacre.
Jeff Widener’s story was on my mind as I went to Tiananmen Square and contemplated my own journey photographing the Great China Skywalk. Luckily, I was not seeing the Tiananmen Square scenario in my coverage of Jay Cochrane in China. The people in charge never saw me as a threat. The fact that they allowed me to carry a Mac laptop, Nikon scanner, and phone paraphernalia into Fengjie showed either ignorance of the technology or wanting of a positive spin. Take your choice.
Needless, entering the square was daunting. The sheer size of the open area was just like China, huge and mysterious. And the first thing seen was the huge sign on the front of the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong that counted down the 609 days until July 1, 1997, when Hong Kong would return to China. Little did I know that it was showing me my future. I would travel to Hong Kong to document the city prior to the changeover.
But this was my first impression of China. The square felt massive and I had arrived on a great morning. The sky was solid blue, there was no haze, no pollution, just a perfect day. As I approached the Monument to Revolutionary Struggle, the sun lit the faces of the clay-based workers, peasants, and soldiers, with some specifically representing the People’s Liberation Army, along its base. It was in this plaza that the cry for democracy began. The Monument to the People’s Heroes was ground zero, and the rally point, during the people’s uprising in 1989. As I approached the 118-foot-high granite obelisk with bas-reliefs of important revolutionary and historical events, the moon leapt into view as I walked around it. All I could think of as I raised my camera was the quote by Lyndon Johnson, “I don’t want to wake up under the light of a Communist moon.”
Students added another monument during their occupation. The “Goddess of Democracy” was constructed out of foam and papier-mâché over a metal frame and stood about 33 feet tall. The statue was destroyed on June 4, 1989, by soldiers clearing the protesters. As many as 10,000 people were arrested during and after the protests. Several dozen were executed. Since its destruction, replicas were built in San Francisco, Washington, D.C. and Vancouver. A replica was erected in Victoria Park, Hong Kong, on June 4, 1996, in a statement by thousands of residents in attendance. It was removed December 23, 2021, during a national security clampdown of the former British colony. Hong Kong was the one place in China where mass remembrance of Tiananmen was tolerated. No longer.
For me though, the obelisk was the symbol of Tiananmen Square. Every great city has an obelisk. And this was different, just like the Chinese.
ChinaTV: The Great China Skywalk
October 28, 1995 – Jay Cochrane in Qutang Gorge
