The Great Noam Chomsky

Earlier this morning Noam Chomsky was awarded an honorary degree from the University of St Andrews. I managed to get a few shots of him as the procession of cloaked graduates came round the quad under the first blue sky for days, but, being the lucky bugger that I am, I was also afforded the opportunity to document a private interview between Chomsky and several student publications.

The room was small, wood panelled and dark - the sun struggling to penetrate the the modern and somewhat clumsily stained glass windows. However, the unusual decor merely added to the bizarre and disjointed feeling that occurs when sat across the table from someone as internationally important as Noam Chomsky (as you do...).

As aged and as hard of hearing as you would expect any 83 year old, his frail appearance concealed a sharp knowledge of current events. Once he managed to decipher what the interviewers were asking he was able to retort on any topic, from Scottish independence to Israel/Palestine and Syria. Indeed, he often took it past our own depth of knowledge and left the interviewers nodding and smiling apparently knowingly.

It was, in the end, highly inspirational, and I will never take for granted the time that I received (what was, in my eyes) an hour long private lecture from Chomsky himself.