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.

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.

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.

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

I place myself in situations where a lot of people are going to be, and bring a particular body of work that reflects the people already there. You have to study your subject.

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.

For me, the stars are the invisible people on the street that people don't really get a chance to know.