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'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.

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.

Philip Jones Griffith documented the Vietnam War, and through his images that were published in Time Life Magazine, it showed me the horrors of war and at that time, I wanted to be a war photographer, based off his work.

When you look at my photos, just look into the eyes of my subjects. The eyes say so much.

The majority of the people I've taken photographs of, I've had conversations with. "What are your goals and aspirations?" "What are you about?" It's not just about me capturing the image; I want to know what you are about.

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