In 1987, he was hired as Associated Press Picture Editor for Southeast Asia where he covered major stories in the region from the Gulf War to the Olympics.

Other assignments included East Timor, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Burma, Syria, Jordan, India, Laos, Vietnam, Pakistan and many more.

In response to a question on when the protests started to become violent, Widener recalls a scene on the night of 3 June: Interviewer: Could you, if you would, describe to us how those events unfolded 30 years ago?

I was with another AP reporter and we were riding our bicycles to, you know, just check out the scene, because it was relatively quiet, but things started getting heated when a burning armored car came down the street and people were throwing rocks, and I was attacked, [...] my camera was smashed, the lens was ripped off, it was bleeding everywhere, and I was just knocked silly, and finally once I got my head together, I went back to the AP office to bring the rolls of film, and the camera was so damaged they had to pry the film open [...] Interviewer: Did you witness from where you were up there at that vantage point, did you witness some of the worst violence?

Martsen later borrowed Flitcroft's rented bicycle to deliver the photo film to the AP office at the Diplomatic Compound.

[4] Prior to taking the picture, Widener was injured during the night event of June 3, 1989 after a stray rock hit him in the head during a mob scene on the Chang-An Boulevard.