Remembering Alan Davidson

My dear cousin the pioneering newspaper photographer Alan Davidson has died. It is almost impossible to believe because he has been everywhere in my life since I was a child. At party conferences, he was always at the front, getting the best picture of the PM, and pissing off the likes of Alastair Campbell. At parties, including notably The Spectator’s famous summer party, he charmed the powerful and arrogant to give him that revealing portrait. And he always knew where to be to get the picture that the papers wanted. 

He more or less invented the modern celebrity photograph in the 70s. In my life we had pesach with him, he photographed me as a child and my wedding. We enjoyed happy times and helped each other through the saddest. He was a kind, energetic, driven force of nature, occasionally maddening, mostly the best mensch. 

I will miss him very much. It is incredibly frustrating for me that because I am quarantined I cannot go to the funeral.