Sadiq Khan - The Sunday Times Magazine

“Being a leader is lonely. And I’ve struggled. I should feel confident talking about it. I shouldn’t feel that I’ve got to be this alpha male who demonstrates his virility by being super human.” Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London – in his interview with Decca Aitkenhead for The Sunday Times Magazine. When I photographed Sadiq it was my first commissioned shoot since Covid-19 had put the UK in lockdown. It had been a strange and horrible time, and I was nervous and eager to get back at it. My assistant and I set up in a big open space at the top of City Hall, donned our gloves and masks, and waited for the Mayor to walk in. It was so strange not shaking his hand, and not being able to get too close. It made me realise how much I normally use proximity in my approach to portraiture, but I quickly adapted and found other ways to connect with the likeable Mayor. Sadiq was friendly, but also seemed tired. It was refreshing to hear his honesty, especially about the his struggles with his mental health during the lockdown. It must be so tough being mayor now. I’ve always seen Sadiq as a bit of a fighter, scrapping for London, not afraid of taking on people like the US president. So I took along a pair of boxing gloves to our shoot. He was more than happy to put them on, even though his media manager looked a little uncertain. After throwing a few punches at me we moved onto to my second set where we talked in more detail about what we’d both been through. Then we finished pretty much in silence on the balcony overlooking the city. Massive thanks to Russ O’Connell for asking me to meet the Mayor, to Stuart Harper for assisting so beautifully, and to Sadiq for being so open with me. Watch the behind the scenes video tour of our Covid safe set at the bottom of the photos.