Platon, who has photographed world leaders including Vladimir Putin and six U.S. presidents, pleaded for unity Sunday.
The world-famous photographer spoke at Purdue Northwest Sinai Forum’s first lecture of the season.
“Empathy is the secret ingredient to making a human connection,” he said.
Platon punctuated his sentences with portraits he has made during his career. “This is a picture of a 28-year-old lady, and she was homeless on the streets of Moscow,” he said.
Asked if she had a wish, she responded, “If I ever had a wish, it’s for you, for happiness.”
“Tell all your amazing friends in America about my story, but always speak truth to power,” she said.
Platon told the stories behind some of his most famous portraits.
One of his subjects was Russian President Vladimir Putin. It’s a chilling tale.
On a cold December day, Platon was picked up at his Moscow hotel for a drive to the Kremlin in a former KGB BMW. En route to the Kremlin, the driver suddenly veered and sped off away from the Kremlin. “I thought I was going to get whacked,” he said.
“We ended up in the most dismal building I’ve ever seen in my life,” he said. There were two tiers of walls surrounding Putin’s palace, filled with guards carrying automatic rifles. “I’m covered in orange dots” from snipers targeting him, Platon said.
Once inside, “I waited for him. The doors open, and in comes Putin with a giant entourage.” Platon asked Putin if he ever listened to the Beatles. The translators translated the question in Russian, and Putin’s mood dropped. He ordered everyone except the bodyguards out of the room.
“Oh my God, I love the Beatles,” Putin said. He spoke fluent English.
His favorite Beatle? Paul McCartney. His favorite song? Platon wondered if it was “Back in the USSR.”
“Yesterday,” Putin said. “Think about it.”
Platon did so and realized it was a window to Putin’s mind. He craved authority and power.
In taking the photo, Platon was inches from Putin’s face. “As I took this picture, I could feel his cold breath on my hand.”
That wasn’t Platon’s only hair-raising assignment in Russia.
Platon decided he wanted to photograph Edward Snowden, who leaked American state secrets and went on the run to escape U.S. authorities.
“I thought it would be interesting to see if I could find him,” Platon said. Many months later, Platon got an unmarked envelope giving him instructions to be at a certain Russian hotel on a certain date at a certain time. The instructions were precise.
“This is James Bond (expletive), and I’m not cool,” Platon said. Complying wasn’t easy.
“How could I get in Russia? No visas anymore.” So Platon called one of Putin’s close aides, whom he met during the Putin assignment some 22 years before.
“Sergei, I want to come back,” Platon said. He couldn’t tell Sergei why, but he did say it would greatly irritate the U.S. government. Those were the magic words.
“I pretended I was Daniel Craig, and I followed these instructions exactly,” he said.
In the appointed room at the appointed date and time, there were three soft taps on the hotel room’s door. “What’s on the other side of that door. Is it a SWAT team? Is it the CIA? Is it the new KGB? Or is it him?”
Upon opening the door, Platon found a man with rolled-up shirtsleeves, a shirt two sizes too big, and shoes worn out. With the door shut behind him, the man said, “I’m here. I’m Ed. Let’s begin.”
Snowden spent about 1.5 hours talking about himself, “wandering through the halls of power.”
“Loneliness can be a terrifying thing, especially when you’ve been robbed of all the people you love,” Snowden said, but it can be freeing.
“Listen to the silence, and you might just hear the voices of history talking to you,” he said.
“The line between right and wrong is not always broken. And all of us, in some point in our lives, will cross over that line,” but what makes you an honorable person is trying to atone for a mistake when you’ve done something wrong, Platon said.
In the room with Platon was an American flag, a keepsake he always had with him. Platon photographed Snowden with the flag.
It’s a flag that holds many memories for Platon.
“I wrapped a very naked Pamela Anderson around with that flag,” he said. She was four months pregnant and didn’t want to have a tight-fitting swimsuit reveal that fact yet. Anderson let him keep the flag and urged him to carry it with him on assignments.
That photo of Anderson was a hit. The USO used it for a poster to inspire troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“It’s the same flag I draped over Muhammad Ali’s shoulders,” Platon said, when Parkinson’s disease had done so much damage to the boxer who once floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee.
Platon invited Snowden to hold the flag. Asked are you a patriot or are you a traitor, Snowden said, “Don’t get bogged down with labels. Don’t get bogged down picking sides or teams.”
Another terrifying moment was Platon’s first big assignment, when a British magazine wanted him to photograph Anthony Hopkins. Platon related the experience to a rapt audience.
He went to the magazines in London, telling them he was a big deal photographer looking for work.
He lucked out. One magazine wanted him to photograph Hopkins, who was promoting a movie Platon hadn’t heard of: “Silence of the Lambs.”
The day before the photo shoot set up for a posh hotel in London, Platon started to get nervous. He rehearsed setting up his lights and practiced how to greet a famous person. Handshake? Bow?
While tweaking the lights, Platon put on the TV for company. A news report told of Hopkins attacking a famous photographer during a huge row. The photographer was traumatized.
“I called up the magazine and said, is there only one Anthony Hopkins?” Then he confessed to being a student. “They said this is why we don’t give a young person a break, because they fold.”
So Platon went to the photo shoot and found out what character Hopkins played in the movie, someone who killed and ate his victims.
“He comes in the room and his sits in front of me, and it’s Hannibal Lecter Inc.,” Platon said.
When Hopkins picked up Platon’s camera, the photographer had a physical reaction. “I didn’t know what was happening. My hands start shaking,” he said. “I suddenly felt my ribcage banging against my heart.”
A hospital medic found Platon on the floor and checked his blood pressure while slapping his face. It was a panic attack, not a heart attack. “I have never seen anyone so stressed in my life. Calm down,” the medic told him.
“I looked up and saw Hannibal Lecter looking down over me.”
Platon confessed to Hopkins that he was a student and mentioned the actor’s action the day before with the famous photographer.
“If you did that to him, I can’t imagine what you’re going to do for me,” Platon said. Hopkins gave him a hug and “a big wet, juicy, Hannibal Lecter kiss.”
“I’m an ordinary looking person filled with insecurities,” Hopkins told him, and the other photographer “treated me like a piece of meat.”
“You have been honest in front of me, and it’s allowing me to be honest in front of you,” Hopkins told him. The photo session went well after that.
“A life of being curious, and reaching out and asking people about their lives … has been a blessed life,” Platon said.
“Maybe the person who seemed like a monster is just more frightened than you are.”
Another photo was of a young widow whose husband died fighting Iraq for America. “She has his wedding ring around her neck, and she’s holding the flag draped over his coffin.”
The Army sent a box of his things to her after he died, but she hadn’t opened it yet. “Maybe now, in front of you, it’s time to face emotion.”
“As we lifted the lid, she stopped to cry, and I felt ashamed of myself. For the first time in my life, I put a photograph above a person.”
She explained her emotions to Platon, who had suggested she pose wearing one of her husband’s Army shirts.
“I’m crying because I just realized they washed his clothes, and I just wanted to smell him,” she said.
Platon paused for that to sink in with the audience.
“We all came into this room defined by our differences,” he said. “And yet we all felt that together. What we felt is compassion, compassion for someone we never met.”
“I think we’re going to rise up. I think we’re going to rekindle the spirit of optimism.”
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
