Veteran Reuters photographer Goran Tomasevic – who has decades of experience in war zones – took the photo with a telephoto lens last week, immediately recognizing the moment as a surreal image of calm amid chaos.
The subject of the picture turned out to be 68-year old retiree Gino Rojas, a protester, who later told Reuters he saw nothing unusual about the situation.
“In every movement there comes a time to relax,” Rojas said in an interview at his apartment in Santiago several days after the Dec. 4 riot. “Obviously in a revolution… you get hot, uncomfortable in your suit and your tie snugs up.”
Rojas, who earlier in his life worked in the credit card department of a Chilean retailer, calls himself an “activist,” and said he joined the marches out of solidarity with the protesters seeking change.
He recalls the moment he stopped in the road and lifted his soda bottle to take a sip.
“When I stopped I was surprised to see (the police) closing in on me in both lanes,” Rojas said. “They came in buses and stopped 10 meters (11 yards) away. I stopped to watch them.”
For Tomasevic, who had already lost one camera to a water cannon amid the skirmishes, the assignment was equal parts tense and rewarding.
“There was a lot of tear gas, a lot of sweating,” Tomasevic said. “I noticed this guy as I followed police.”
“I had seen people coming to protest in suits and well-dressed, which was unusual compared to other places.”
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