"Photographing Hillary Clinton Was Awful." The title of the YouTube video, posted by award-winning portrait photographer Harry Borden, says it all.
If you're unfamiliar with Borden, he's a renowned British photographer known for his photographs of celebrities and politicians. A two-time winner of the World Press Photo Award, whose work hands in the National Portrait Gallery in both England and Australia, he knows what he's talking about.
So when he described the former First Lady and presidential candidate as his "worst subject yet", my ears pricked up.
Describing the shoot, which took place at Swansea University in 2018, Borden was (as you'd expect) nothing but professional and courteous, even bringing along a copy of his book Survivor: A Portrait of the Survivors of the Holocaust as a gift for Clinton – which would also convey that he was a seasoned professional, not some local snapper.
"The day passed with tedium and Hillary worked hard at being important," Borden says in the video, which you can watch below. "And when I got my opportunity I gave her my book, and she seemed to be impressed, and I said to her I'm looking forward to photographing you later."
Alas, the professionalism and courtesy were not returned in kind.
"She spent the day shaking hands with dignitaries and also starsstruck children, and giving sort of pompous speeches which were tinged with bitterness at her failure to beat Trump.
"All day – ARGH! – literally eight hours, and then finally Decca Aitkenhead, the writer, is summoned to do her interview. It's about 6:30pm, Decca's been gone for about half an hour, and the light is good but it's going – so I'm thinking, I must get my pictures. I've been waiting for so long."
He then details a fruitless exchange with the press officer, whom he described as being "an incompetent chancer", desperately trying to get his photographs before the light vanished. His messages being ignored, he braved his way past the numerous minders and bodyguards to the room where the interview was taking place.
"Hillary and her entourage come out, completely ignore me, and they're walking out of the building," Borden continued, noting that it was only due to Aitkenhead imploring Clinton – and him "belligerently" guiding her to his makeshift studio – that she deigned to have her picture taken. And even then, only for 15 seconds.
"How dare they go home after having kept me waiting there for that long. They'd never intended to do the shoot. They wouldn't have even said goodbye."
Although he got what he wanted – and in 15 precious seconds, no less – Clinton's entourage continued their abrasive ways.
"It was pretty irritating when all her flunkies started sort of criticizing me, and actually being quite aggressive, acting like I was some paparazzi photographer on the street rather than a portrait photographer who'd been waiting for eight hours to do my photoshoot – which had been part of the day's schedule."
Despite not having smoked in years, Borden stopped to buy cigarettes on his way home to calm himself down.
I highly, highly recommend checking out the full video as well as others shared on Borden's YouTube channel – which features both Harry and his son, Fred, sharing cool war stories like these about memorable portrait sessions over his career.
