I started being a photographer because I liked fashion. I liked the idea of dressing up and changing my look. I got earrings, dyed my hair. I would dress like a fashion photo.

Ive been criticised for pretty, smiley photographs, but at least someone is happy! In my mind, I am always giving the image to the sitter.

It's a choice - there are two different sorts of photographer: those obsessed with the technicalities and those obsessed by the subject.

The more I photograph women, the less it is about transformation. Women are beautiful. All that really matters is enhancing that.

I waited a long time, an hour or two, to make that picture perfect. But I wasn't totally satisfied. Then, when I'd finished the shoot, they were about to leave and they suddenly hugged in front of a radiator. I took my camera and that was the picture that ran everywhere - it was spontaneous emotion you could see they were completely in love.

Most photographers go and photograph something that they see, that exists, and that somebody else has created - they document it. But fashion photographers have to create what they're going to photograph. We have to go into the thought and build it up, get a girl, get a guy, get a situation, get the house, get the decor. It's the meaning of the word photography: "writing with light."

A man today has to live with the reality of today. He can no longer live with the reality of 100 years ago. The world's changing so fast. Unless you are prepared to adapt every day, then you have a problem, because the world's not stopping.