Portraits of Power
Nov 30th, 2009 by pedestrian
The New Yorker this week features an interactive portfolio of forty nine world leaders and a short commentary by the photographer, Platon. The photos were taken in September, when all the world leaders were at the U.N.
I found the photographer’s comments on each of the leaders fascinating, but most especially his words about Ahmadinejad.
Take a look at the “childlike” Ahmadinejad with “innocent” eyes.
INNOCENCE ABOUT HIS EYES?!?!?!?!
Someone should get the head of this photographer examined; he sounds VERY detached from reality!!!!
Naj, I too have NO idea what Platon is talking about.
However, Ahmadinejad apparently can try to convey that “dehghan-e fadakar” (kind, humble farmer) image and that’s one he’s been able to exploit well, so maybe that’s what he was able to convey to the photographer.
Dear Pedestrian,
what I like about your blog are your really crazy ideas you every now and then come up with !
I chose and listened to the commentaries by the photographer on politicians I amateurishly consider to “box”/”fight” in a similar “weight-category” (economically/geopolitically). I subjectively find that the commentaries can somehow be assigned to their politics/their attitude/their past and present in a very intriguing, somehow typical/comprehensible way:
a) Ahmadinejad: you quoted the comment “childlike” (a child usually does not have a realistic estimation of what it/he/she is doing; i.e. you might put anything into a child’s hand – don’t ask me what exactly – and the child might create havoc with that gadget without really knowing about what it is doing or paying attention to it and without anybody being able to take it/him/her to account for its/his/her deeds)
b) Michelle Bachelet/Chile: no wonder that her attitude is one of being “suspicious” of her human/political/social environment (given her biography and the general knowledge that power elites – here the ones responsible for Pinochet-Chilean authoritarianism – do not simply vanish from the screen of reality; given the strain involved with her political office/political activity in that sort of political and societal surrounding which is burdened with that, certainly still somehow active, past)
c) Benjamin Netanjahu/Israel: characterized by expressions like “bizarre”, “I was kind of brainwashed by him”, “make me look good” (what else is there to comment ? )
d) Recep Tayyip Erdoğan/Turkey: characterised as “great gentleman”, “warm”, “looking deep into the camera” (he seems to be resting in himself, not making much fuss about himself, and why not: he has done a lot of good for Turkey, bringing Turkey – an Islamic country – near the EU and making it impossible for European politicians to refute integration within the EU, convincing lots of people at home, in Europe, in the world of his politics, politics of integration of the Kurds within his country, politics of integration and mediation as to Turkish foreign policies)
Of course, I expect noone to agree with me, quite the contrary – the remarks above are just my extremely subjective impressions !
Thanks for your ideas
German
German, I see that like me you listened to all of them
Thanks for this post (I would have missed it otherwise….) here is my take
Ahmadinejad: I understood what it means to be ignorant but not stupid.
President of Rawnda: some one I would like to have as a friend (trustworthy…I have no idea how good/bad he is, just the message I get from looking at the photos)
president of Madagascar.. he looks like the boy from the MAD magazine…
Berlosconi, is a boy molester…
I couldn’t find Hu Jian Tao
dehghan-e fadakar… LOL!!! very funny!
roozbeh, or Merkel or Sarkozy and many others. Not everyone agreed to participate (neither did Obama) but it’s funny that you would expect Ahmadinejad to jump at the chance which he did.
I loved his comments on Argentina’s Fernandez. So sweet (her politics aside, I’m only talking about Platon’s remarks).
sorry to add this, but finnish girls I know are very attractive, this president of finalnd could be a she-male!!!
why are you sorry?
really? I didn’t know about Finnish girls. But I hear she’s doing a good job, she wouldn’t have any time to spend on her looks. She married her partner in 2000, and she’s a prominent supporter of gay rights.
I didn’t like Obama’s photo here. I have seen one of Obama (and I took a photo of that photo, I am not sure if I can copy and paste it here), I saw it in simthsonian musicum in DC, there was this guy who took photos of people who were on their way to become somebody (in case of Obama, he had been just elected as a senator from chicago), that picture was really moving… he took pictures of people like Rushdie just after publication of Midnight children etc etc, those were really nice….
I’m personally tired of the Obama craze so I wouldn’t have minded not seeing him on the list
curios to see the photo you’re talking about …
just tried, i can’t copy and paste it here… maybe you would be able to see it on their homepage i am not sure…. I am still very optimistic about Obama, in fact, a case can be made that he raise to presidency on my shoulder… i.e., I donated 2 dollars to his campaign.. If you are in iran, I suppose you are up for the namaz shab… i am off to bed
“on my shoulders” … LMAO
I’m not in Iran right now, but I’d rather watch boring IRIB soaps than namazeh shab.
May you have dreams of Obama and beautiful Finnish girls
I was about to go to bed, checked my facebook and ended up watching my ex neighbour second cousin wedding photos!… haha.. thanks ped, i am quite conservative so i keep Obama out of my dreams with finnish girls… and you, may you have dreams of me
You crack me up … did they make a handsome couple?
O.k. it’s a deal. Keep Obama out. And I’d like dreaming of funny people, beats the murders and psychos I usually dream about. I just don’t know what you look like …. hmmm, a funny guy without a face … I’m sure I could manage 
well I am sorry to disappoint you, but I am too old for you, so we can only be friends… otherwise you end up pushing my wheelchair up and down the streets in your dreams
lol, don’t worry roozbeh, I meant “dream” in the most friendly way. I’ve learned long ago not to look for men over the internet, no matter what their age
Interesting that the photographer pretty much singled out Morales, Chavez and Ahmadinejad for blackened backgrounds. The extreme close-up for Ahmadinejad is also curious (but I admit, it works well).
I would bet the photographer put more thought and work into Ahmadinejad’s photo than any of the rest, the majority of which are traditional or run-of-the-mill by comparison. In my younger years, I had occasions to be under the personal direction of a few fashion photographers, and later on in life I became a magazine publisher, so that’s what my experience is telling me.
It is definitely the most artistic photo out of the entire collection. Thanks for sharing this, Ped.
“under the personal direction of a few fashion photographers” … wow!
Ahmadinejad, Chavez, Morales and Berdimuhamedov of Turkmenistan had the blackened backgrounds. But for Ahmadinejad and Morales, I think the background adds to the aesthetic quality of the photo so I didn’t think much of it. I think the extreme closeup also takes away some of that “ugliness” (I’m going to be crude, irrespective of his politics, I think Ahmadinejad is not good looking at all.) The exaggerated, closeup nose makes me notice the eyes more than the other features and I think that’s what Platon was going for. But I was never a magazine publisher, so how would I know?
That’s a really, really scary picture of Khaddaffy (yes, that spelling of his name is intentional). It’s really interesting how the Kenyan president’s photo is positioned right next to Obama’s photo, and he’s shiftily looking at Obama. Considering that there may be some fishy stuff going on with Obama’s Kenyan ties . . .
Lola, what is the fishy stuff with Obama’s Kenyan ties?
Well, let’s disregard the birth certificate issue. I’ve heard stuff about how Obama apparently played a heavy role in elections there. I’m not sure of the exact details myself.
And then there’s Obama’s aunt, who’s facing deportation because she’s here illegally. She claims that she would be in danger if sent back there. In what kind of danger, she doesn’t say. There’s next to nothing being reported on Kenyan ties when you use only the MSM sources (he has a large family, and quite a few involved in Kenyan politics), so other stuff one has to get from people tracking down stuff, and you really have to weed out the facts from fiction. Pretty hard to do when there’s so much being hidden.
Lola, I wasn’t aware of any of this. Thanks for the recap