Info on ‘Low Profile’ Famous Portrait Photographer, Platon

Brody

First seeing Platon’s work yesterday, I found his style interesting and unusual. Apparently famous for his wide angle portrait work, I tried to find more on his techniques, equipment, and so on. While not totally invisible, his presence is minimal. A bio, a basic web site, and a couple interviews - that’s it. His body of work and high profile clients rival Leibovitz …Putin, Clinton, Obama, Pacino, Damon, Will Smith, Time Magazine to Rolling Stone, on and on, the list is long. But Google Annie and Platon, and she’s 2,000,000 hits, he’s 3,000.

If you’re a Platon devotee or work in a style similar to his, it’d be great if you’d share it here. Also, beyond his mention of Leica, I find little about his other Photo techniques or equipment and any info would be appreciated. A simple focal length would be a great start – his Jim Carrey photo (at the link below) makes me wonder on that detail….

Here’s a link to only one of his galleries, Movies, one of maybe a hundred galleries on his site and it has about 80 familiar faces – Jim Carrey, Damon, and Edward Norton are quite interesting.

http://www.platonphoto.com/portraits/movies/index.html


I look forward to finding out any info on his work and seeing portraits shot in his wide angle style.

michswiss

I don't have any additional information on him, but I've just taken a quick look at some of his images on your link. I'm going to enjoy studying his style. Very much in a vernacular that I like. Thanks!

Tim Kamppinen

Platon is awesome. Aside from the obvious wide angle, close in stuff, the thing that I think really stands out about his work is the great expressions and looks he gets from his subjects. The lighting is good, but nothing extremely fancy. Most of his stuff is on white seamless paper. And much of it wouldn't be considered "flattering" by the standards of most portrait photographers. But there's just something captivating and intense about the images he captures that makes want to sit and go through his entire portfolio when I normally wouldn't.

There was a link posted on the Strobist blog back in May that featured an interview with Platon, where he talks about shooting Putin, among other things. Well worth the listen:

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2008/05/interview-platon-and-putin.html

EDIT: Here's another strobist post with a link to some videos:

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2008/02/simple-light-platon-videos.html

saurora

I am so glad to find this site again! I read about him in a magazine, not sure which one, and visited his site then, but lost that link a long time ago. His work is certainly intriguing, not always flattering, but definitely interesting! I really enjoyed his video interviews, especially the one on Fly Magazine. Definitely gives you some new perspective on portrait photography which many people think is boring! Thanks for sharing.

Brody

Tim Kamppinen wrote:

Platon is awesome. Aside from the obvious wide angle, close in stuff, the thing that I think really stands out about his work is the great expressions and looks he gets from his subjects. The lighting is good, but nothing extremely fancy. Most of his stuff is on white seamless paper. And much of it wouldn't be considered "flattering" by the standards of most portrait photographers. But there's just something captivating and intense about the images he captures that makes want to sit and go through his entire portfolio when I normally wouldn't.

There was a link posted on the Strobist blog back in May that featured an interview with Platon, where he talks about shooting Putin, among other things. Well worth the listen:

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2008/05/interview-platon-and-putin.html

EDIT: Here's another strobist post with a link to some videos:

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2008/02/simple-light-platon-videos.html

Thanks for the info Tim. I found Platon's work captivating also. Couldn't stop going through his site. The Putin video was great photo-wise and also how to get your subject to feel at ease... If you can do it with Putin, you can do it with anyone. Great interview.

I'm also hoping that some Platon devotees with post some of their images here with the specs they used in getting the shots, body, lenses, et al...