Jae-Young's Photo Blog: Project 7: Cover Page-Platon Interview

Another nominee of World’s 10 Greatest Photographers, Platon Antoniou shared his life story with V Magazine. Born in London in 1968, Antoniou was raised by English mother and Greek father and because his parents were an art historian and an architect, he was constantly exposed to the arts. Platon said, “While I was still a student at the Royal College of Art, I received British Vogue’s Best up-and-coming Photographer, and now I am receiving World’s 10 Greatest Photographers.”

After graduating, he started working for George, the

political and media cultural magazine and achieved one of his favorite projects, which was “a cross-country trip in order to document the 20 most fascinating men in America.” Since then, Platon’s fame spread all over the country and he has shot many commercials for luxurious brands. Now he is still a renowned photographer, residing in New York with his family,

Platon shared his story with his new project, Portraits of Power that he did for The New Yorker. Platon said, “This project was taken this past September, when there was a meeting of the United Nations in New York. I set up a tiny studio next to the General Assembly and hustled as many of them in front of my lens as possible. It was a five-day-long improvisation.” He added that It was very interesting to see the world leaders’ new faces through the portraits and added commentaries to each picture on the website Portraits of Power.

One of his portraits has made the cover of V Magazine, and us, the editors, thought it would be a perfect choice due to the model's hands. When asked about the

posture, Platon answered, "Oh yes, [chuckles] I totally had the desire to make the cover of V Magazine and asked the model to posture his hands. [chuckles] Actually, I had the model put up a V sign because I wanted to show the juxtaposition between his serious face and his hands. His face and clothing all say that he is a powerful, rich man. However his hands show a playful side of him and that is what I wanted to show with the portrait of the president of Brazil."