Artists are a very important part of our society because they make a great contribution to our values. The artist creates a value system that we all grow up on, whether we know it or not.

The artist is a kind of a seer and by nature he is optimistic because he believes in the future.

Artists are a very important part of our society because they make a great contribution to our values. The artist creates a value system that we all grow up on, whether we know it or not.

My photographs are subjective and personal-they’r e intended to be accessible, to relate to people’s lives... People-their well-being and survival-are the crux of what’s important to me.

You should be able to look at me and see my work. You should be able to look at my work and see me.

But if it's true it's beautiful. Truth is beautiful. And so my whole work is about what amounts to a reverence for life itself.

There were no black images of dignity, no images of beautiful black people. There was this big hole. I tried to fill it.