A photographer must be prepared to catch and hold on to those elements which give distinction to the subject or lend it atmosphere.

I am not interested in rules or conventions. Photography is not a sport.

Photographers should follow their own judgment, and not the fads and dictates of others.

And only the photographer himself knows the effect he wants. He should know by instinct, grounded in experience, what subjects are enhanced by hard or soft, light or dark treatment.

When I began to photograph nudes, I let myself be guided by this camera, and instead of photographing what I saw, I photographed what the camera was seeing. I interfered very little, and the lens produced anatomical images and shapes which my eyes had never observed.

The vital elements are often momentary, change-sent things ... a gleam of light on water, a trail of smoke from a passing train, a cat crossing the threshold. Sometimes they are a matter of luck, sometimes of patience, waiting for an effect to be repeated that you have seen. It is usually some incidental detail that heightens the effect of a picture, stressing a pattern, deepening the sense of atmosphere.

In my portraits I try to avoid the fleeting expression and vivacity of a snapshot.