Platon: the Defenders

Portrait photographer Platon has spent his career photographing the powerful and the famous: presidents, despots, movie stars, athletes. He has also traveled the world shooting human rights activists and their quest to document abuses and fight for freedom and justice on behalf of their fellow citizens. The Defenders presents five photo essays on these struggles in Burma, Egypt, Russia, the United States, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In Burma, one of the world's most...
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Portrait photographer Platon has spent his career photographing the powerful and the famous: presidents, despots, movie stars, athletes. He has also traveled the world shooting human rights activists and their quest to document abuses and fight for freedom and justice on behalf of their fellow citizens. The Defenders presents five photo essays on these struggles in Burma, Egypt, Russia, the United States, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In Burma, one of the world's most repressive and closed nations, he shot monks, sex workers, former child soldiers, and the controversial political leader Aung Sung 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, who had been in power for thirty years. Although he visited Russia during the brief period of openness when Dmitry Medvedev was President, he photographed and spoke with dissidents young and old who have battled a succession of oppressive governments. He also photographed Vladimir Putin, who continues to commit human rights atrocities today. Along the southern border of the USA and northern Mexico, he documented victims of and activists against inhumane immigration policies. The chapter includes portraits of three recent US presidents-George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald J. Trump-who have shaped US immigration policy in the 21st century. Finally, The chapter on Congo documents part of the complex civil wars and continuing trauma of sexual violence as a weapon of war. Central to this chapter is Dr. Denis Mukwege, winner of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize, and his Panzi Hospital, which has been at the forefront of treating victims of sexual violence and reintegrating them into society.The images, in Platon's visually arresting style, are accompanied by short texts that identify the subjects, contextualize the complex issues, and retell Platon's own stories of shooting on location. Although the images in The Defenders span 15 years, the human rights issues that they document are sadly still relevant-from the continuing immigration crisis in the USA to the current war in Ukraine waged by Vladimir Putin.