CHINA. Beijing. June 3-4, 1989. In the middle of the night, the Chinese army used tanks and foot soldiers to force the students from Tiananmen Square. Refusing to leave, they massed on nearby Changan Avenue, standing in rows to face the army’s machine guns. “Every 15 minutes the Chinese would go to the lines and mow down the front row of students,” says Turnley. “The first row would go down, then they would collect the bodies, move them to the rear, and a new line was formed.” To this day it is unclear whether hundreds or thousands were killed as the students sacrificed themselves. “They did this until daybreak, until they realised their day in history was over.”
Photograph: David Turnley/Corbis