When I was at Stradbroke College in Sheffield, between 1991 and 1992, we were always looking to getting the perfect shot for our end of course portfolios and demonstrations were the obvious choice for the news category.

Basically we needed to provide 10 shots in categories including: two in the news category, two sports pics, and a character study (aka a portrait), a cheque presentation-type shot, a filler pic and one from a fashion shoot.

In January 1992 a few of us decided to trek down to London to cover the 20th anniversary of Bloody Sunday march. Being relatively inexperienced as a press photographer I travelled with a couple of cameras under my overcoat (probably with 24mm and 85mm lenses) and as much film as my pockets could cope with. I travelled light as I was expecting there to be trouble because of the polarising nature of the issue and I did not want to obviously look like a photographer.

Needless to say I was being over cautious as the bags we used at the time were inconspicuous and it was good to meet a few of my early influences such as David Rose from the Independent.

Having said that a certain back bench Labour MP featured in a few of my shots, who was later to rise to prominence as the party leader, who was none other than Jeremy Corbyn. But I did not know who he was as he was an obscure backbench MP but he can clearly be seen at the centre of this shot above.

Having said that, I first noticed Corbyn when he first threw his hat into the ring during the leadership campaign of 2015 and I first saw him speak at Durham Miners Gala that year and he ultimately won the leadership challenge. Having said that you can clearly see him with darker hair and beard at the centre of this pic during a protest march to get the troops out of Ireland.

As I recall the course leader at the time, Paul Delmar who still has legendary status with all of his former students, said we would not fill our portfolios with protest photos as we were due to go down to London the following month, but we felt it was worth covering the students’ protest against the cuts to grants. Needless to say I did take more kit on that occasion all within a camera bag.

So I reckon I got some decent shots, including Tony Benn speaking, but the photos from the Bloody Sunday march were better.