You don't find a lot of politicians that are knowledgeable about cameras – other than the power they wield. In fact, for this very reason, many politicians do their best to stay away from cameras whenever possible.
So it was with some surprise that I discovered, while taking a photograph of former opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, that the controversial politician recognized the camera I was using. And it was a niche one, too: the Hasselblad 907X & CFV 100C.
"Is that a Hasselblad?" asked the former leader of the Labour party, as I perched nervously in front of him. "I don't get photographed with a Hasselblad very often!"
If you don't know who Jeremy Corbyn is, in many ways he is to Britain's politics what Bernie Sanders is to America's. On this particular night, I had the opportunity to take his portrait during a poetry evening in Bristol, England.
Corbyn was doing a tour of his new book, Poetry for the Many, an anthology collated with British trade unionist Len McCluskey, and featuring contributions from the likes of filmmaker Ken Loach and satirist Alexei Sayle.
The evening was a colorful one. The politician was joined on stage by writer and performer Kat Lyons, who holds the position of Bristol City Poet, along with poet and champion battle rapper Danny Carlo Pandolfi.
They read some moving poetry from the likes of Edwin Mur and Juana Inés de la Cruz, and Corbyn told anecdotes like the time he and Tony Benn spent hours chatting to Nelson Mandela after the press covering the event had got bored and gone home.
After the event had concluded, a line quickly formed that wrapped around the lobby of the venue and led up two flights of stairs and all the way back to the auditorium – a line that I was almost at the very end of.
I hadn't gone in a press capacity, so I would have to wait patiently with all the hopeful book signees if I wanted to get a shot. And wait I did, for almost an hour, as the affable politician signed every book and posed for every selfie that was requested.
By the time I got to him, I could tell he was tired. As much as he had spent the evening reading and discussing his love for Shelly and Keats, he had also been fielding personal and political questions from the audience. He had been discussing the conflict in Israel, and a refugee who was on hunger strike (and so depleted that he was wheelchair-bound) had come to show his support.
In short, he would have been well within his right to decline my request for a photograph. But he didn't; one look at the Hasselblad and a huge smile crossed his face, and he was truly excited to sit while I fiddled with my exposure and rocked the XCD 90V's focus ring back and forth.
The image isn't going to win any awards. It won't appear on any book covers or in any magazines. But the wry smile on the face of one of the country's most renowned political figures, chuffed to be having his photograph taken with a very niche camera, will always make this a special picture for me.
Take a look at the best Hasselblad cameras, which are among the best medium format cameras available – and the XCD 90V is one of the best lenses for portraits.
