Platon was born in London in 1968, but raised in the Greek Isles, until his family returned to England in the 1970s. He is currently based in New York. He attended St. Martin’ s School of Art in London, and after receiving his BA with honors in graphic design, went on to an MA in photography and fine art at the Royal College of Art. After working for British Vogue for several years, he was invited to New York to work for the late John Kennedy Jr., at his political magazine, George.
After shooting portraits for a range of international publications, including Rolling Stone, the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Esquire, GQ, and The Sunday Times Magazine, Platon developed a special relationship with Time magazine, producing over 20 covers. In 2007, Platon photographed Russian premier Vladimir Putin for Time’s Person of the Year cover. This image won a World Press Photo first prize.
In 2008, Platon signed a multiyear contract with The New Yorker. As staff photographer, he has produced a series of large-scale photo essays, two of which won ASME awards, in 2009 and 2010. Platon’s New Yorker portfolios have focused on many themes, including President Obama’s inauguration, the US military, portraits of world leaders, and the civil rights movement. In 2009, Platon teamed up with the Human Rights Watch in projects that have highlighted human-rights defenders from Burma, Russia, and Egypt. Following his coverage of Burma, Platon photographed Aung San Suu Kyi for the cover of Time, days after her release from house arrest. Subsequently, Platon won a Peabody Award for his coverage of Russian civil society. In 2012, he became Newsweek’s only contract photographer, and also joined the Council for Global Agenda at the World Economic Forum.
Platon’s first monograph Platon’s Republic, published in 2004, includes a broad range of celebrities, politicians, athletes and cultural events. To coincide with its publication, the work was exhibited internationally, in London at the Saatchi Gallery as well as at the Milk Gallery in New York. His second book, Power—a collection of portraits of over 100 world leaders—was also released as an app, winning a Gold Cube Award at the Art Director’s Club in New York City. The book showcases portraits of world leaders from Barack Obama to Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, and Robert Mugabe to Silvio Berlusconi. The project has been exhibited at the WestLicht Museum of Photography in Vienna, and at the Florida Museum for Photographic Art in Tampa.
The Washington Speakers Bureau has chosen Platon as an inspirational representative for communicating issues of cultural responsibility and human rights. Similarly, he has been invited to be a keynote speaker at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Yale, the London School of Economics, the National Portrait Gallery in London, and the International Center of Photography in NYC.
In 2011, his work was exhibited in New York at the Matthew Marks Gallery and the Howard Greenberg Gallery. The New York Historical Society also held a solo show of Platon’s civil rights photographs, which remain as part of the museum’s permanent collection. His advertising credits include Credit Suisse Bank, Exxon Mobil, Diesel, the Wall Street Journal, Motorola, Nike, Rolex, and Issey Miyake, among many others.
