A tapping-mode scanning near-field optical microscope system with a bent optical fiber probe has been successfully developed to study the near-field optics at fiber end faces. Topographic and near-field intensity images of fiber end faces were obtained simultaneously. A brief and gentle etching process on fiber end faces in a saturated solution of ammonium bifluoride was able to reveal the structures of fibers. The topographic features generated by different local chemistry is closely related to the local doping concentration and the distribution of refractive index. The correlation between fiber structures and their near-field intensity profiles of propagating modes can be acquired directly by this novel method. Fibers of step-index, graded-index, single-mode, multimode, and circular, or noncircular geometry were imaged with a near-field resolution.