Eve Conant writes in National Geographic about how the Turnley brothers -- identical twins who are two of the world's best known documentary photographers -- came to be in Beijing 25 years ago today. David, who worked for the Free Press from 1980 to 1998, is an associate professor at his alma mater, the University of Michigan School of Art and Design, and Residential College.
David Turnley was in Paris when he got the call. His brother Peter was in Beijing to cover the visit of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to China but was on the line with different, more exciting news. A small group of students had taken to the streets in protest in Tiananmen Square—and their numbers were swelling.
"I think something is happening here," Peter told his brother. You need to cover this too, Peter urged.
David flew out to cover the events as well, and as he walked among the million or more protesters who soon filled Tiananmen Square, "there was a sense of an elevated human spirit," he says. "It was euphoric."
Click on the link to see their photos.
