If the photographer is interested in the people in front of his lens, and if he is compassionate, it's already a lot. The instrument is not the camera but the photographer.

I realise that I had the best of serious picture journalism. There was an innocence in our approach, especially in the 1950s and 1960s when we naively believed that by holding a mirror up to the world we could help - no matter how little - to make people aware of the human condition.

Themes recur again and again in my work.

I came to photography by accident.

I don't see anybody as either ordinary or extraordinary. I see them simply as people in front of my lens.

I found a way of working which pleased me because I didn’t have to frighten people with heavy equipment. It was that little black box and me.

If the chemistry is right between star and photographer and the geometry of the pictures pleases the star, often the two people end up with a long-term professional friendship during which they continue to work together and to produce highly personal images.