Gallery of modern art courtesy of the Parliamentary Digital Services

We were recently rather taken by the release of the 2017 MP portraits snapped shortly after Members of Parliament took their oath of office. 15,000 images taken over the course of a few short days capturing 90% of the 650 sitting MPs in the House of Commons. What followed the PDS’s digital upload was a brash game of one-up-manship amongst political commentators and bloggers in the twitter sphere.

There are several notable highlights but top of my chart was the Member of Parliament for North West.

Look at the sheer joy Chris McAndrew, editorial portrait photographer, has captured in Andrew Brigden. What a delight! I do hope at the very least the Brigden household get that in a frame.

And we pause for a moment of some seriousness. Cratus colleagues reject the sinister twitter commentariat surrounding the portrait over our very own NED Bob Neill MP.

We see your “Robert Neill does not expect you to talk, Commander Bond, he expects you to die” and raise you, “Bob stood back and admired his handiwork, the contraption he had built would make short work of the South Eastern franchise and all others who stood in the way of right and proper commuter links.”

Cratus thanks the sterling (and quite frankly ground-breaking) efforts of Photographer Chris McAndrews and Parliamentary Digital Services Editor in Chief Carrie Barclay for embarking on this unique task. Image sourcing for Cratus briefings will be far more enjoyable in future!

No changes were made to the images used…as much as we may have wanted to. Access to the Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) license can be found here.