Renowned portrait photographer Platon at the 2023 Ballarat International Foto Biennale - The Courier - August 25, 2023 - video Dailymotion

The Courier

Renowned portrait photographer Platon at the 2023 Ballarat International Foto Biennale. Video by Michelle Smith.

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00:00 So Obama, this is an interesting one because this picture was taken, it's her first portrait

00:06 as First Lady.

00:07 This was her first time cover.

00:10 So it was very important.

00:11 It's a very powerful woman and it's the first time in America we ever had a woman of color

00:17 as First Lady.

00:18 And that's got nothing to do with politics.

00:21 That's a cultural moment in one of the most powerful countries in the world, if not the

00:24 most powerful country.

00:25 And I was in the White House and I was nervous that day.

00:30 I don't often get nervous, bless you.

00:33 I don't often get nervous but this day was important to me.

00:36 And when I'm nervous I get a little socially clumsy, know what I mean?

00:40 So I picked up my camera, focused on her eyelash and suddenly my clumsiness, I shouted out,

00:48 "Right my love, I want your soul, give it to me!"

00:52 Silence in the room.

00:54 Hairdresser drops his hairspray in shock and this devastating look comes over her face.

01:00 The eyebrow raises as if to say, "How dare you?"

01:03 But I quite like it.

01:04 And then I took a picture and realized what I'd just said.

01:07 I said, "Oh my goodness me, I'm an Englishman!"

01:10 And in England we invented being polite.

01:12 I suspected Australians did better but we invented it.

01:16 And here I am, you're the First Lady and I'm calling you my love and demanding your soul

01:22 leaves the giver by rudeness.

01:24 She stands up, gives me a hug and whispers in my ear, "Plato, when all is said and done,

01:30 I'm just Michelle."

01:33 I remember saying to him, "I'd love you to give me one word of wisdom, because one word

01:41 from you is going to be worth a million words from anyone else."

01:44 And his whole body had shut down.

01:47 He couldn't move anything and the only thing that worked was this muscle underneath his

01:53 eye that his scientists, his team built a tiny sensor attached to his glasses that picks

01:59 up movement with that muscle.

02:01 And with that muscle he moves a cursor on his laptop screen and types letters, words,

02:07 sentences and it takes ages to create a whole essay that he would write about humanity in

02:13 time and space.

02:14 So, suddenly we hear beep, beep, beep and we all lean in to the laptop to see what is

02:23 he going to type.

02:24 His nurse told me that it's unlikely that anything he types is going to mean anything

02:30 because even that muscle was failing there.

02:32 He goes to the letter W and he starts again, beep, beep, beep, beep, goes to the letter

02:39 O and in the last letter, beep, beep, beep, beep, all the way back to the letter W.

02:46 Someone on the team says, "W-O-W, what the bloody hell does that mean?

02:50 That's a mistake."

02:51 And then I thought, "That's not a mistake."

02:54 He just typed the word, "Wow."

02:56 He just gave me a word my kids would use about the beauty and majesty of life.

03:01 And isn't it amazing how the man who faces so much physical adversity still looks at

03:06 the world through the eyes of wonder?

03:09 And if we can tap into that optimism with all the opportunity we have physically, emotionally,

03:18 intellectually, socially, then we can be transformative.

03:23 So, to me, that is a very powerful moment.

03:27 And I was nervous because that's the kind of moment I've got to get right because if

03:32 I screw it up, I'll miss it, and if I miss it, then I can never share it.

03:37 So, it really matters.

03:39 [BLANK_AUDIO]

Renowned portrait photographer Platon at the 2023 Ballarat International Foto Biennale - The Courier - August 25, 2023

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