The subject gives you the best idea of how to make a photograph. So I just wait for something to happen.

I’m trying to please myself; certainly that’s a big criterion... though in a sense, I don’t take images just for myself. I take images that I think other people will want to see. I don’t take pictures to put in a box and hide them. I want as many people to see them as possible.

I think the prom is very serious also. It's an American ritual, it's a rite of passage, and it's very much a part of this country.

The subject gives you the best idea of how to make a photograph. So I just wait for something to happen.

Everyone asks me how I get my subjects to open up to me. There’s no formula to it. It’s just a matter of who you are and how you talk to people - of being yourself.

Photograph the world as it is. Nothing's more interesting than reality.

There are some people who become best friends with everyone they photograph. There are people that I really like and admire and respect, but in a way I think it's better to keep a distance. I think you get better pictures of people that you don't know very well.