world leaders at the UN – an interactive set of photographs

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Platon: Photographs of World Leaders : The New Yorker
Platon: Photographs of World Leaders : The New Yorker
http://www.newyorker.com/online/multi…
Artists have been making portraits of the mighty for centuries—from Velázquez’s Philip IV to Lucian Freud’s Elizabeth II—and the act of portrait-making can leave the royal or the tyrant, the President or the diplomat with a sudden feeling of disequilibrium, of a transfer of power. Avedon knew that Kissinger was trying to manipulate him, but what, exactly, did he want? “Did Kissinger want to look wiser, warmer, more sincere than he suspected he was?” Avedon wrote later. “Isn’t it trivializing and demeaning to make someone look wise, noble (which is easy to do), or even conventionally beautiful when the thing itself is so much more complicated, contradictory, and, therefore, fascinating?”

here  click through to see the photographs.  seriously, one of the best things I've seen all year

http://www.newyorker.com/online/multimedia/2009/12/07/091207_audioslideshow_platon

http://www.newyorker.com/online/multimedia/2009/12/07/091207_audioslideshow_platon

the url in the link is not working. the above *should* work. 

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5 thoughts on “world leaders at the UN – an interactive set of photographs”

  1. Fantastic. I went through all of them. I couldn't pull away. I got chills from Mugabe and Qaddafi. Thanks for sharing!

  3. What's so interesting to me about this is that I get so much of my news from NPR and podcasts that I have no idea what some of these people even look like. So not only do I get to see these wonderful photographs, but to hear the photgrapher comment on sight personality traits that are not typical of news reports is absolutely fascinating.

  4. you got it, val. it's surprising and sad that NPR is one of the last bastions of real news. no way we are going to hear about Tong or Lithuania or East Timor in the teevee news unless there's been a natural disaster.

  5. This is incredible, mariser. I am going to go through every one of these people, too!It's so fascinating listening to Platon speak of each subject.

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