If you've seen my books through the years, I've always been a storyteller.

I learned how to skate, I couldn't do the tricks, but I could certainly skate fast enough. I could keep up with anybody and I could bomb hills and I could hide behind my camera.

I just happened to have my camera and be photographing my friends. It was totally innocent; there was no purpose to the photographs. There was a purity to them that wasn’t planned; it was realism.

At the end of the day, what I show is real life. I tell the truth. And the truth can be shocking.

For me there are no rules. I think I learned that from artists-from painters and sculptors. It took photography a while to catch up to them.

If you're going to photograph skateboarders you can't run after them, you've got to learn how to skate. So at about 50 years old I learned how to skate, and skate fast enough to keep up with them and hold my camera.

If you've seen my books through the years, I've always been a storyteller.