Fifteen years of Platon’s visually arresting and often dangerous documentation of human rights movements, from Cairo to the CongoThe celebrated portraitist Platon has spent much of his career photographing the famous and powerful, but he has also traveled the world documenting human rights activists and their quests for justice. The Defenders presents five photo essays spanning 15 years of work on these struggles in Burma, Egypt, Russia, the United States and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.In Burma, he took portraits of monks, sex workers, former child soldiers and the controversial political leader Aung San Suu Kyi. He was on the ground in Cairo for several weeks early in 2011, when Egyptians took to the streets and demanded the resignation of Hosni Mubarak. In Russia, he photographed and spoke with dissidents who have battled a slew of oppressive governments. Along the border between the US and Mexico, he documented victims of inhumane immigration policies. Finally, the chapter on the Congo documents the continuing trauma of sexual violence as a weapon of war.The full-bleed images are accompanied by short texts that contextualize the complex issues in each place, and retell Platon’s own stories of shooting on location. The book also includes a poster.
It is a tribute to Platon’s artistry that his images often impart so much without any need for supplementary text. -- Arthur Lubow The New York Times: Arts
While he’s celebrated for his searing portraits of world leaders and cultural icons, his new book, The Defenders: Heroes of the Global Fight for Human Rights, also shines a light on immigration activists, rape survivors, and free speech dissidents. Financial Policy
Exerting due diligence and handling sensitive subjects thoughtfully is something that Platon admits is a luxury of time; he is able to spend months on a project, producing the most considered and provoking images he can. -- Caitlin Chatterton CNN
It encourages the viewer to embrace the definition of power in all its forms, with a focus on amplifying the voices of those fighting for a more just world. -- Katherine Pomerantz TIME
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