Christina was a prospective councillor in Brighton for the Greens. She needed good images, both posed portraits and “action” shots for her campaign material. As ever, in smaller parties and at a local level, budget was limited.  The shoot was done in what became her ward (yes – she won the seat) in central Brighton – a few shots in her office, a few on the streets and some in cafes and shops. It was fun, and for me it was the start – learning the ropes, getting confidence in taking lots of pictures of one person – and I will always be grateful to Christina for giving me the chance.

Images were delivered both in Colour and Black and White, which is my usual pattern. I chose monochrome for the set here becaase I felt then that they worked very well in that mode.

I am always happy to work for political candidates at an economical rate, especially if I have some personal knowledge of their desire to serve the community, and if their interests are to the left of centre, and strong on personal liberty and the environment. I have done most work for the Lib Dems, but am happy to work for a good candidate from any mainstream party.

You may say that this is only photography, and I am paid for it, and the politics of my subject should be irrelevant to me. But taking pictures is more personal than that; I would find it very hard to take sympathetic pictures of, for instance, Nigel Farage. But then, he wouldn’t be getting a discount, now, would he?!

One of the first photo shoots I was paid for, I keep this session on my website to remind me of beginnings. What can you do with one camera body and no flash? All I had back then was the Nikon D700 (not a bad choice if you must have only one camera!) the classic 24-70mm 2.8 lens and an old, second hand, 105mm Sigma macro.

I am glad to have a fuller kit bag these days, but I know that my naturalistic style was already well on the way back when these pictures were taken. For portrait photography I edit a little differently now, and I would look for more modelling in some of the lighting, but it was a good start. Thank you, Christina!