Generally, the French highly promote culture and the arts, and photography is in their blood.

I'm pretty selective. I generally edit the contact sheets and then do work prints. Because I have my own lab and printers, I can afford the luxury of going through the contact sheets for black-and-white, making up work prints, seeing them big, and honing them down.

It's always more comforting to know that in any given corner of any room or any location you're on, you can make a photograph that you'll appreciate.

And what excites me most is the type of public, the fact that the Parisian people have a broader cultural understanding than many Americans do.

I think a lot of the time these days people are so concerned about having the right camera and the right film and the right lenses and all the special effects that go along with it, even the computer, that they're missing the key element.

It's important to let your subjects be themselves.

What I particularly liked was that, coming from California and not being involved in the New York scene, I developed my personal way, in my own way, at my own pace.