About Ian Davidson

I came to press photography the long way round. After a 35-year career in senior HR roles in financial services, I retired at 55 and built a second career doing the thing I'd always wanted to do: standing outside Downing Street with a camera when the news happens.

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A decade on, I'm an NUJ-accredited news photographer with Westminster and Downing Street access, a regular at Cabinet arrivals, and a contributor of more than 32,000 images to Alamy, distributed worldwide through Alamy Live News and SOPA Images. My pictures have run in national and international titles covering everything from state visits and diplomatic summits to breaking news on Essex high streets.

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The first career wasn't wasted. Thirty-five years in boardrooms taught me how power actually moves through a room — which is, in the end, what political photography is about. You learn to read who matters, where they'll walk, and when the real picture will happen. That, plus turning up. I shoot every sitting Tuesday whether the diary looks promising or not, because the best news pictures go to whoever is already there.

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When I'm not in Westminster I photograph life in Brentwood and Essex, where I'm based — and I still take on selected commercial and event commissions. B.Sc., MBA, FCIPD, NUJ.