The State We're In, 16 July 2011. Featuring a brain researcher, a UN Rapporteur on Torture, a portrait photographer for The New Yorker and the Egyptian blogger 'Sandmonkey'.
Photo - Time Magazine covers. From left, Vladimir Putin; Muammar Gaddafi - photographed by Platon.
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Platon’s powerful people
The New Yorker magazine staff photographer Platon has taken portraits of the most powerful people in the world. He tells host Jonathan Groubert how he captures their stories in a split second.
In 2007 Platon photographed Russian Premier Vladimir Putin for Time Magazine's Person Of The Year Cover (left). This image was awarded the coveted 1st prize at the 2008 World Press Photo Contest
(more photos below).
Links - Elsheba Khan at the grave of her son, Specialist Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan
The New Yorker: an interactive portfolio of portraits by Platon of world leaders.
Platon's website - platonphoto.com
Video - Platon tries to recall his most famous subjects:
All in the brain
Jonathan speaks to Rolf Zwaan, a brain researcher at Erasmus University in Rotterdam. He believes that stories are hardwired into our neurological network. Stories allow us to understand the past, face the future, and govern how we treat each other.
Seven years ago, a revolutionary blog was born: ‘Rantings of a Sandmonkey’. An anonymous Egyptian man was taking on Middle East politics with venom.
But as protests escalated in Cairo’s Tahir Square, Sandmonkey decided that if he wanted to tell the world the real story behind the Egyptian revolution, he needed to reveal his true identity.
Link - Rantings of a Sandmonkey
A good listener
A few weeks ago, Juan Méndez happened to tune into The State We're In from Washington, DC. The show featured a story about Sergei Magnitsky, the Russian lawyer who was tortured and killed by corrupt officials. Juan is the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture. His job is to listen to the stories torture victims tell him. He can empathise – maybe because he has a torture story of his own.
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I'm an artist that is very much into painting portraits. Would it be possible to get permission from this amazing photographer, Mr. Platon, to paint some of these portraits of world leaders? I listened to today's broadcast on Public Radio with Mr. Platon. And I listened to the 'on-line' version of his 'non-stop' effort to capture each of these individuals -- endeavoring to reach their very essence, yet managing to be 'in command' of the interface.
Bravo!
Elaine Rowan
e.rowan@suddenlink.net
Hi Elaine,
To be honest, I have no idea if Platon would agree to have his portraits painted by you. We may be able to forward your request to him, though, and who knows: it's worth a shot. Thanks for listening. Greg, Editor TSWI.
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.Great men are almost always bad men.....There is no worse heresy than that the offioe sanctifies the holder of it.
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