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.

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.

I think that photography has allowed me to have a voice. I used to stutter, and once I overcame that struggle, it felt good to tell people they were beautiful and special.

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

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.

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.