Diane’s office is quite snug to say the least with space taken up largely by a big round table and accompanying chairs. There are books piled everywhere, unable to nestle on the straining bookshelves, all of which seem heavy and important. She informed me that she was supposed to have the large office next door which lets in lovely pools of light and would have been much easier to shoot in, but she donated it to her staff. With the amount of smiling people I met next door, they would have been hard pushed to squeeze into this one. It’s humble but that’s an attractive trait in a politicians office I think.
I crept around setting up, trying to be quiet during the interview, though I couldn’t refrain from a gasp as the subject of being hounded by paparazzi arose and with a direct glance in my direction she said ‘I’m sure you’re lovely but…’ I couldn’t bear the awful assumption I was part of the press pack, hounding people in streets and plaguing privacy of homes and family members. There is a massive gulf between what we do. Most politicians are quite guarded when you take their portrait and even with me assuring her I wasn’t some press hack, Diane was no different, however I started rambling on about African print fabric from her recent trip to Ghana, and she showed me some mats that she had bought back which had been hand-crafted by local women, and then we were fine.