Speaker 2
you're talking about depicting all of these qualities, courage, resilience on film, I'm just imagining that a lot of what you do has to be left on the cutting floor. And how many pictures do you take to get the one that we end up seeing?
Speaker 1
It's interesting the cutting floor idea because it's not just the pictures I take, but it's the journey to get to the moment and that's the most important thing. And sometimes it's the conversation that I have with someone that stimulates a moment or stimulates a thought or a feeling with that person that creates that moment in history that you just know this is the point where I take the picture because my subject has just entered a space where they are being 100% authentic. Now, that's a very, very special place. And I'm always privileged to be in front of someone that's able to express their humanity in that way. And it's certainly there is absolutely no difference, whether I'm photographing a president of the United States, or a homeless person in Moscow. the end the privilege is the same and they're all risking something in front of me to be able to express what they really feel and who they really are. So when I get it right, as I say, someone's enemies see a story there but someone's friends also see a story there. Their wife might say, well, that's definitely him. And their opponents might say, that's definitely him. It's him. Or it's her. It's true. That's a good picture.
Speaker 1
So I worked with him two times. First time was at the General Assembly in New York, the United Nations General Assembly, where all the world leaders come to fluff feathers and show off in front of each other and make their speeches, make their pitch. And the Netanyahu I caught that day was the sort of savvy storyteller, communicator, tough politician that yes, this is him, he seems to enjoy the political circus. He's a navigator. He's a great communicator on TV. I mean, he tells stories and he he's so articulate. I remember as I was taking this he kept whispering to me, platon make me look good. that's the one side of Netanyahu, skilled politician. But then about a year later, I was invited to his home in Israel. And as I was on the plane, to do the photo shoot, his father died. And his father was a huge figure in his life, a heroic figure. And Netanyahu was devastated. So he cancelled all political meetings with heads of state, certainly cancelled my photo shoot. But I refused to leave, I arrived in Israel, I said I will stay until he feels up to being photographed. Word got to him while he's in mourning that I wanted to stay until he was ready. a moment of respect for me. So when he came out of mourning, he called out to me and invited me to his home as the first person he would meet as he's coming out of this emotional journey mourning for his father. The netanyahu I caught that day was the other netanyahu. angry volatile in pain look at his tie slightly pulled to one side it's not perfectly placed like the other tie was it's almost the same picture black and white almost the same practically the same suit but it's completely different in spirit you can see the tension in his eyes. And he was emotionally volatile. One minute he was vulnerable. He showed me his office and his desk with all the pictures of his father everywhere and talked about his father. The next minute he was kind of aggressive emotionally and he was jibing at me. And that's a side that we all have. When we're grieving, when we're hurt, when we're angry, rage is is reckless and volatile. So when you put those two pictures together, again, it's only two fragments of a second. You could say it's completely meaningless. On the other hand, you could say, but somehow they show us two sides of his character. Those two sides of his character have informed history and are playing out right now on the world stage. So I think it's important to try and understand the mindset and the character of these political figures that shape history and shape our time.