Eye Magazine

In this extraordinary large-format book, The Defenders: Heroes of the Global Fight for Human Rights, photographer Platon (see Eye 89) flips his focus from powerful leaders and dictators to the powerless. The people he admires most are those who stand up to sexual, political and economic violence and loss of human freedom. In five photo essays documenting struggles in Burma, Egypt, Russia, the US and the Democratic Republic of Congo we meet ‘The Defenders’ – bold, proud, scarred yet courageous.

Platon goes knee-deep into a Burmese waste dump, and witnesses a boy carrying water for cooking to his displaced family encampment (above left). He sees behind the balaclavas of Pussy Riot (above right) and hears their stories uncensored by state media. His images will haunt you long after you put the book down.

Platon sets up his white paper backdrop in a miner’s hut and meets Prince Dieudonner (below), who says, ‘I grew up in a tin mine … I make 2000 Congolese dollars [about two dollars] a day.’

Three US presidents do reappear (from Platon’s archive, which includes more than 30 Time magazine covers), but only as contextual markers in the backdrop to personal and political issues of migrant policy. Platon, an immigrant himself, investigates sexual violence, injustice and racial discrimination.

In the 300 full bleed images and gatefold sections, we get under the skin of real people and feel the penetrating gaze of Human Rights Watch, who back this book, as does The People’s Portfolio, a foundation initiated by Platon to give voice to victims. Platon believes that it is important to listen to everyone – even dictators – and keep an open mind about what makes them tick.

How does he walk the tightrope between commercial commissions and his gritty, dangerous reportage? The answer is in his tenacious determination to produce work from the heart, despite its unpalatable and uncommercial nature.

Cath Caldwell, educator, author, designer, London

First published in Eye no. 106 vol. 27, 2024