Meng Zhaorui 孟昭瑞 (1930-2014) was a famous photographer of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) during the Great Helmsman’s leadership in communist China. Born in Tangshan City (Hebei province), Meng first joined the revolutionary army in the 1940s and eventually became a photographer, researcher and senior reporter. Meng recorded pivotal historical events and political figures throughout his career, including the detonation of the first China’s nuclear bomb at the Lop Nur test site in Xinjiang province in 1964, which marked China’s nuclear capability as a world power at that time. Meng frequently – yet not exclusively - used colour film (Afga), such as the photographs above which were taken in majority in Tiananmen in 1966.
