I want my photographs not only to be real but to portray the essence of my subjects also. In order to do that, you have to be patient.

I respect newspapers but the reality is that magazine "photojournalism" is finished. They want illustrations, Photoshopped pictures of movie stars.

I was fascinated by my own prom pictures.

The obsessions we have are pretty much the same our whole lives. Mine are people, the human condition, life.

That's the way I learned photography: You make your picture in the camera. Now, so much is made in the computer. ... I'm not anti-digital, I just think, for me, film works better.

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.

In a portrait, you always leave part of yourself behind.