Prime Minister, Gordon Brown smiles whilst addressing guests at the Corby Business Academy opening
Last year, the Corby Business Academy, a school that I branded and have completed a lot of design work for, had a special grand official opening by the Prime Minister Gordon Brown. I spent the day in the press pack at the opening being shepherded around by Downing Street staff (think “The Thick of It” but younger and less sweary), and being stared at by steely-eyed body guards and secret service people (think of the men protecting the Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi recently, but much more effective, if not as well dressed and you’ll get the picture) This was all in the name of capturing the event photographically for posterity.
Dour Gordon in the Daily Mirror
Now, Gordon usually gets portrayed as a dour Scotsman most of the time in the press, (you compare smiley Tony to dour Gordon on Google images), but I found him to be both serious, good humoured and engaging. When reviewing the images later I was surprised at how he come across as happy and smiling sort. One can only conclude that Gorden gets stitched up by the picture editors and others influencing the choice of image published. I had a hard time finding a “typical Gordon” shot from the ones I had taken.
It’s an election year in 2010 so I’ll be keeping an eye on how the candidates are portrayed. In the interest of political fairness I have to say I photographed David Cameron several years back, he came across as charming, slick and very aware of the camera. Can’t say I’ve ever had the chance to Photograph Nick Clegg but I’m sure we’ll see his face a lot in the months to come.
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Web search interest in the three leaders
Using Google insight we can track web image searches for the three leader over the last twelve months.