Renowned portrait photographer Platon at the 2023 Ballarat International Foto Biennale. Video by Michelle Smith.
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00:00 So Obama, this is an interesting one because this picture was taken, it's her first portrait
00:06 as First Lady.
00:07 This was her first time cover.
00:10 So it was very important.
00:11 It's a very powerful woman and it's the first time in America we ever had a woman of color
00:17 as First Lady.
00:18 And that's got nothing to do with politics.
00:21 That's a cultural moment in one of the most powerful countries in the world, if not the
00:24 most powerful country.
00:25 And I was in the White House and I was nervous that day.
00:30 I don't often get nervous, bless you.
00:33 I don't often get nervous but this day was important to me.
00:36 And when I'm nervous I get a little socially clumsy, know what I mean?
00:40 So I picked up my camera, focused on her eyelash and suddenly my clumsiness, I shouted out,
00:48 "Right my love, I want your soul, give it to me!"
00:52 Silence in the room.
00:54 Hairdresser drops his hairspray in shock and this devastating look comes over her face.
01:00 The eyebrow raises as if to say, "How dare you?"
01:03 But I quite like it.
01:04 And then I took a picture and realized what I'd just said.
01:07 I said, "Oh my goodness me, I'm an Englishman!"
01:10 And in England we invented being polite.
01:12 I suspected Australians did better but we invented it.
01:16 And here I am, you're the First Lady and I'm calling you my love and demanding your soul
01:22 leaves the giver by rudeness.
01:24 She stands up, gives me a hug and whispers in my ear, "Plato, when all is said and done,
01:30 I'm just Michelle."
01:33 I remember saying to him, "I'd love you to give me one word of wisdom, because one word
01:41 from you is going to be worth a million words from anyone else."
01:44 And his whole body had shut down.
01:47 He couldn't move anything and the only thing that worked was this muscle underneath his
01:53 eye that his scientists, his team built a tiny sensor attached to his glasses that picks
01:59 up movement with that muscle.
02:01 And with that muscle he moves a cursor on his laptop screen and types letters, words,
02:07 sentences and it takes ages to create a whole essay that he would write about humanity in
02:13 time and space.
02:14 So, suddenly we hear beep, beep, beep and we all lean in to the laptop to see what is
02:23 he going to type.
02:24 His nurse told me that it's unlikely that anything he types is going to mean anything
02:30 because even that muscle was failing there.
02:32 He goes to the letter W and he starts again, beep, beep, beep, beep, goes to the letter
02:39 O and in the last letter, beep, beep, beep, beep, all the way back to the letter W.
02:46 Someone on the team says, "W-O-W, what the bloody hell does that mean?
02:50 That's a mistake."
02:51 And then I thought, "That's not a mistake."
02:54 He just typed the word, "Wow."
02:56 He just gave me a word my kids would use about the beauty and majesty of life.
03:01 And isn't it amazing how the man who faces so much physical adversity still looks at
03:06 the world through the eyes of wonder?
03:09 And if we can tap into that optimism with all the opportunity we have physically, emotionally,
03:18 intellectually, socially, then we can be transformative.
03:23 So, to me, that is a very powerful moment.
03:27 And I was nervous because that's the kind of moment I've got to get right because if
03:32 I screw it up, I'll miss it, and if I miss it, then I can never share it.
03:37 So, it really matters.
03:39 [BLANK_AUDIO]