Everything is so superb and breathtaking. I am creeping forward on my belly like they do in war movies.

The camera is a kind of license.

...I would never choose a subject for what it means to me. I choose a subject and then what I feel about it, what it means, begins to unfold.

Everything is so superb and breathtaking. I am creeping forward on my belly like they do in war movies.

I'm very little drawn to photographing people that are known or even subjects that are known. They fascinate me when I've barely heard of them.

It gets to seem as if way back in the Garden of Eden after the fall, Adam and Eve had begged the Lord to forgive them and He, in his boundless exasperation, had said, "All right, then. Stay. Stay in the Garden. Get civilized. Procreate. Muck it up." And they did.

Freaks was a thing I photographed a lot. It was one of the first things I photographed and it had a terrific kind of excitement for me. I just used to adore them. I still do adore some of them. I don't quite mean they're my best friends but they made me feel a mixture of shame and awe.