Fashion somehow, for me, is purely and happily irrational.

My parents offered me my first camera for my birthday and I developed an exclusive passion for it over the years. Since I was not the most social kid on the block, the camera helped me to express myself, invent my own language - something like a secret garden. I decided early on I would not write in a diary but take silent photographs instead.

I like it to stay very organic, and to remember a personal story behind all my subjects.

Together with the rise of the internet, September 11 and its aftermath has changed most of our lives.

An athletic man, or whatever you want to call him, will only look good in a very classic suit, a pair of classic jeans, athletic clothes or simply naked. Forget fashion. This is not going to happen, unless you want to look like a Chippendales dancer in designer clothes.

I presume my work has also always been about reduction without any distraction or after effects, outside emotions, or intimacy or complicity with the subject.

I discovered Los Angeles in the late 90s. The city was not at its best at the time, but I fell for it right away. There is something almost haunted about it, a vibrant mythology I find rather inspiring.