I have photographed the last four Prime Ministers,
opposition leaders, and past and present Government
ministers, during many election campaigns,
education and business visits, and private functions
- the highlights of which were photographing former
Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev, and former
Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Both exuded so much power that I knew they
were entering the room long before they actually did.
.
In my earlier years I was photographing former
Conservative Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd in his
Oxfordshire constituency at least once a week.

We got to know each other quite well and always spoke
- so much so that on one occasion he was opening a fete.
There was nothing to photograph so through sheer
desperation I asked him to buy an icecream for himself and
his son. When he agreed he stood in the queue and waited
for his turn.

On buying the icecream I set up the shot. The picture was
subsequently used on the front page of a Tory newspaper,
but to this day I regret not taking a picture of him standing
in the queue. That was the picture!

The pictures of former Trade Secretary Nicholas Ridley also
remind me of the time I went to his home in the Cotswolds.
He was one of Margaret Thatcher's right-hand men, and when
I got to his home I asked him to put on a tie because I thought he
looked untidy.

He obliged. Here I was, a very young man, asking one of the
most powerful men in the country to smarten up. It is amazing
what power a camera gives you.

One of my favourite unusual pictures is former Home Secretary
David Blunkett playing pool. Pretty good really, seeing as he
is blind.

ELECTION NEWS...

January 2010 saw the unofficial start of the general election year,
and I started off the year photographing David Cameron during
a visit to Gloucestershire in his bid to win the election and
become the new prime minister.