Idols - Platon, Photography

Platon(Antoniou) was born in 1968, United Kingdom. He was raised in Greek and back to England in 1970's. He attended St. Martin's School of Art. and went on to MA in Photography and Fine Art at the Royal College of Art. He worked with many magazine companies and he had special relationship with Times magazine by producing over 20 covers for them. In 2007, he photographed Russian Premier Vladimir Putin and awarded

First place of World Press Photo Contest.

The important thing in photography is the story and the connection behind in that graphic simplicity. This was the narration from the starting of the show of Platon. I liked how he expressed the story behind with his photo. How design can show the story behind? That was the question I was having from the day

I started my design practices.

I wanted to show it but it was not easy to deliver the message behind. I think he has lots of good influence to learn about design.

Design can simplify the complicated words. People who have trouble on reading, who are from different cultures, who have different religions are all able to understand the meaning behind and the story behind without reading long sentences. That's what great design is. I liked what he said. I thought design can be a tool for communication like he said. All people have different standards of good designs, but my standard is that design is something that people can easily understand but have strong visuals on describing moods and feelings to capture their eyes.

He has great talent on showing a lot of feelings and mood of the person. I also want people to feel the same feelings and the moods I described on my visuals like how people feel about his photos.

One thing captured my eyes is how he is being careful about shooting wrongly, delivering wrong feelings. I did not really think deeply about this part but now I think it is the most important part of when designing for certain stories and circumstances. I will try more to not be biased and to deliver the truth itself.

It was really interesting to see how his pictures have impacted on the society. His photos about the war actually started the big cause to Americans to think again about his topic. In my first year, I stated myself as a designer who can give the solution to make the world changeable. Still, I need to work hard to give more powerful story but it was nice to see there is a person who actually influenced the world with his works. I think I can get more confidence from him.

Sources

All about photo. (n.d.). PLATON (ANTONIOU). https://www.all-about-photo.com/photographers/photographer/377/platon-antoniou

Eye. (n.d.-a). Truth to photographic materials. http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/truth-to-photographic-materials

Glei, J. (2010, October 21). James Victore: Don’t Be A Design Zombie. 99U. https://99u.adobe.com/articles/6944/james-victore-dont-be-a-design-zombie

Harris, M. (2017, March 17). An Interview with Platon, Master of The Portrait of Power. Digital Photo Pro. https://www.digitalphotopro.com/profiles/platon-master-of-the-portrait-of-power/

Netflix. (2020, April 17). Abstract: The Art of Design | Platon: Photography | FULL EPISODE | Netflix [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDpqt-haLLM&list=PLuctemCzX-m4svPpBctWUp0oG__Lhglq9&index=7

Pack, M. (2019, March 2). What Photographers Can Learn from Platon. Focus. https://www.focuscamera.com/wavelength/learn-from-platon/

Platon. (n.d.). Platon. http://www.platonphoto.com/menu/