A lot of people, even my parents, thought, "Art school, I don't know. We'll support you but the success rate for artists is really slim."

I was never raised with anybody telling me that gay was bad.

A lot of my close friends have committed suicide or died of heroin overdoses.

Everyone started to have a camera. That's when I started to travel outside of New York and go into nature.

What I really believe is that there are no coincidences anymore.

I couldn't wait to come to New York to reinvent myself.

Everyone I'm photographing, I feel like I'm remaking a family, in a way. My brothers and sisters are my heroes. So many of my models resemble them.