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.