I think that people have to just go with their gut and follow their passion if they're photographers.

You know a photo session is really a dance and making sure that they're comfortable and for me it's the music, the music, the music. That is everything.

For me there's several components to picture-taking and it starts with my goals as an artist. It's capturing I guess the inner life of my subject and then it is giving them their idealized version of themselves.

So sometimes it is an outright manipulation like that, but most of the time I'm just, I'm creating a mood that is a place of comfort for the person and a way for our dialogue to be more fluid.

We all look in the mirror and see us a little blonder or a little thinner or a little younger, whatever that ideal might be and most of the people that I'm photographing are selling something, you know whether they're on the front of an album cover or a magazine or they're a corporate person ready to switch companies or a doctor selling a skincare line... so I want to help them achieve that.

Many of the jazz musicians whom are no longer here. You don't realize that it's history when it is happening and then time passes and you look at a picture and you say "Wow, there is history attached to that."

I think mentoring is essential in life, both being a mentor to someone and being mentored, and I think that when you are mentored it inspires a generosity in you to mentor others and that I know is what happened with me, so for instance, the people that come through my studio to work for me, it's not good enough for me to just give them a paycheck.