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.

I remember growing up and hearing the word "ugly" a lot. "I'm ugly." "She ugly." "He ugly." I hated it then, and I hate it now. I go past physical beauty; I tell people they have a beautiful spirit and that is something different.

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

The images of war inspired me to create, to go to different situations and communities, to document the human side of people, to show a side that we don't see.

What I strive to do through my work, is to teach compassion. You need to have a lot of it, in this day and time, and it's lacking.

I wanted to go amongst gangbangers, to understand this war they were fighting amongst each other. I wanted to document it, [also] to show the human side of it.