I think that's what the war photography did for me. It showed me the human side of people and how certain circumstances can change people's lives.

Photography is humbling, it really is, and it really allows for me to atone for some of the missteps I've made throughout the course of my life.

For the most part, as a society, we are not happy with ourselves.

I'm shooting a gangbanger, but as a dignified man. That's pretty much what war photography did: seeing images of soldiers in a dignified way. They might have been killers in Vietnam, but I'm seeing another side of them, and looking at images of the the American soldiers, also the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong - I never saw an enemy.

Sometimes we are just divided, but we still, for the most part, we have similar hopes and dreams.

My camera is my compass; it's guided me to so many different places.

There was a time in my life that I may not have been that nice, and now I'm in a position to contribute to the education of young people, and teach them to be compassionate, be more loving, more caring, to not use profanity, to not pollute the environment - these are things that I address in my photography. I