Friday 14 March 2014

Farewell Tony Benn



It has just been announced that elder statesman Tony Benn has died aged 88.

Tony was a left wing politician of great principles and a brilliant speaker, a man who made you think.

Wether or not you agreed with him, he wanted to make you think.

A firebrand in his day who stood up for what he believed in at any cost, in later years he was out of step with the Labour party which was so dear to him.

He wanted to be an MP but this meant renouncing his peerage, effectively a gift from the queen, something that was unheard of.

Famously when he left politics he said he was 'leaving parliament to spend more time in politics'

His diary which he kept daily since 1940 gave an insightful view into the world of politics.

Voted on the BBC politics show as 'The UK's Political Hero' ahead of Mrs Thatcher.

I photographed him in his flat in Holland Park late last year.

His flat was packed with memories of a great life lived.

Before I left I asked him if he could give one piece of advice, what would it be?

He paused, mulling over what I had asked him before replying

'Say what you mean, mean what you say and do it if you can'

Wise words indeed.


*note, I shot this image on the amazing Carl Zeiss 55mm Otus lens at F1.4. I will be posting a comparative test review shortly of this remarkable lens.

22 comments:

beefie said...
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beefie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Drew, sorry for my English. I study photograph at Alexandria university. Your photos are almost best I ever see, you are master. Also your stories and technical advice is inspiral. My whole class follow your blog, thank you for being teacher for all of us
Fahtim Himti

Iden Pierce Ford said...

Remarkable portrait! Why the Zeiss and not the Schneider?
Cheers

Iden Pierce Ford said...

Ahh I see it was for your 6D :)@

M. Christopher Holloway said...

Hello Drew. That's a wonderful portrait of Tony Benn. I knew there had to be something unique about it. And after reading that you'd used the Zeiss Otis, now I know. Such a classic pose , as well. Nice work, as always.

Cheers,
M, Holloway

beefie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Drew, can I make to you proposal? I would like to ask you to be mentor to me. In class we asked to say name of master photographer who mentor student so I ask to you to do this. Always I propose your photos to class definitely Forest series which always make for discussion and laughing. Can you explain to me what is meaning? If you permiss it I like to create famous zebra photo for class but not with zebra as we have no in Egypt. Thank you

beefie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Hi Fahtim

Thank you very much for your kind message.

I'm pleased you enjoy the blog.

Please feel free to emulate my work with your class.

Have fun.

Drew

Anonymous said...

Mr Drew we very happy to read yours reply. In class we no have the good equipment my camera Yashinca but when we read your blog we know you have big equipment to use best way. Do you think best equipment make best picture or is greatness of picture just in your head? We all class hope you can write more on blog
Fahtim

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