Photographing Power at Close Quarters: Covering Downing Street and Westminster as a Press Photographer

John Healy Defense Secretarty in Downing Street on his way to a cabinet meeting.

I work regularly in and around Downing Street and Westminster as an NUJ-accredited press photographer, covering political arrivals, meetings, protests, and the routine choreography of British power. This is not glamour photography. It is procedural, time-critical, and often uncomfortable. That is precisely why it matters.

Access is the job. Without accreditation, background checks, and an understanding of how official spaces operate, you simply don’t get close enough to make pictures that editors can use. Much of my work involves standing for hours in poor weather for moments that may last seconds: a cabinet minister arriving, a visiting dignitary leaving, a protest spilling into a cordon. The images look effortless. They are not.

Downing Street photography, in particular, is about discretion. You are visible but not intrusive. You record without interfering. You notice patterns: who arrives early, who avoids the cameras, who performs for them. These details are not always dramatic, but they are useful. News organisations need accurate, neutral documentation they can trust, not theatrical interpretation.

Alongside Westminster coverage, I photograph protests and demonstrations across London and Essex. This requires the same discipline: impartiality, situational awareness, and an ability to work quickly without escalating tension. The camera should not become the story. That principle applies whether I’m photographing a large national march or a small local protest that later acquires wider significance.

This work feeds directly into my editorial archive, with images published nationally and internationally via Alamy. It also informs my broader practice: event photography, documentary projects, and commissioned editorial work for clients who need realism rather than polish.

There is a persistent narrative that news photography is “dying.” That may be comforting to people who’ve left the field. On the ground, the reality is simpler: fewer photographers are turning up, which means those who do still matter. Presence is now a differentiator.

I am based in Brentwood, Essex, but location is logistics, not a limit. Much of my work begins locally and ends up elsewhere. That’s how contemporary editorial photography works: quiet coverage, wide distribution.

This is not a calling. It’s a job. One that requires patience, credibility, and a tolerance for standing in the cold waiting for something that may never happen—until it does.

When it does, you need to be there already.