I don't photograph anyone if I can't meet with them first because if I don't do that, then they're just going to the dentist and they're filled with fear. They don't know who I am.

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

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.

I love my cameras. I love contact sheets. I love the visceral thing of film and I'm not positive that I can replicate my lighting digitally. My assistants tell me I can, but, just stubborn I guess.

This whole business of all these lenses is ridiculous. You know, it's like you have to capture your picture. You have to create it. You have to see it. You have to seize it and you have to move in to get it, so those lenses are just an escape of some sort or a shield.

Giving someone their style or bumping up their sense of style to be a better version of what it is, is part of the fun of what I do, and I actually approached Al Sharpton. They didn't come to me.

I do select a soundtrack for each of my subjects and again my assistants you know they make fun of me because that is more important to me than the lighting, which I just do in a minute right before, but I spend a long time on the soundtracks.