The events of Tiananmen left their mark on me as a photographer - an eyewitness to history - but also as a human being.
I had come for a personal project on China's youth and my arrival coincided with the first student demonstrations and the hunger strike on Tiananmen Square, where I spent the next ten days and nights. I saw the square gradually fill up to the point of overflowing, then I saw it empty. When I left there were no more than a few hundred young people; this was eleven days before the terrible crackdown of 4 June 1989.
Since then crossing the square has always been difficult for...