The painter, photographer and draughtsman Jacob Sutton was previously the official artist in residence at 10 Downing Street. He was recently in Abu Dhabi to host a series of painting workshops in association with the Picasso exhibition at Emirates Palace.
There was art at my school but, to be honest, my interest in painting and drawing came about 20 years ago. When I was younger, I never thought I'd paint or draw. When I left school, I had lots of boring jobs, so I took up photography.
I went to Macedonia when there was some trouble brewing there in 2000. For me, that's where it started.
Years ago, I covered Northern Ireland, when it was tricky. And I found people were super-friendly, and although I was expecting trouble, I didn't get it. I found that with photography I didn't get the real spirit of those people. But I found that Afghanistan has a dramatic landscape which can be photographed beautifully. If you try and paint it, it's not very interesting. I tried to paint in Kabul, but it was rubbish. It didn't work. The charcoals did work. I can't explain it.
Once or twice there were hairy situations. But given the length of time I was in Afghanistan, I had very few hot moments. But when I did, they were hot! One time, we were at Tora Bora and I was shot at. Al Qa'eda were on a hill there and we didn't know that, and suddenly there were bullets coming. It was the first time I've been shot at - you can't tell if they can see you but you know that if they can see you, you are dead.
Well, 25 years ago, a friend rang me up and asked if he could send someone over to me, for me to shoot some pictures for his election flyers. He said this person wants to try and become an MP. So, this guy comes to my flat in East Dulwich and I took some photographs of him and gave him the prints. Then, two or three months later, he calls up and says, "I got in! I got elected". That man was Tony Blair.
He was really, really nice but he complained, within two months of being an MP how much hassle the constituents were giving him. He was shocked. He obviously hadn't realised what being an MP entailed.
A few years ago, I wrote to him asking if he was interested in me coming and documenting him. I was invited in and then I did it for eight months. I came with him here to the Middle East in 2007. His was a terribly stressful job. When he arrived in Abu Dhabi on the plane, I remember him saying just before he walked down the steps, "I've got to smile now". But he was very charming, very endearing.
Well, he didn't want to go. He loved being prime minister. I was there, outside Downing Street on the day he left, and I could see he was doing this with great reluctance. He wanted to go back in. He really liked it, and he felt he had been pushed out by Gordon Brown.
I wrote to the British Ambassador saying, the French have the Louvre, the Americans have the Guggenheim, and we don't have any institutions yet here. But that's going to change. I'd like an exchange going on. I see this happening in a project called A Day in the Life. For one day, people in this country document their day and people in London will document their day with a photo, a poem, a diary - whatever. Then they exchange them through the internet. I've spent 18 months working on it. We need to sort the venue in London. So far, people like the idea. We're thinking of doing it September 2009.
