Sometimes my fashion pictures can look a little bit like documentary style pictures. So having a camera in my hand was normal.

I didn't do well in high school, but I took photography, and I loved being able to capture moments. It led to more and more photography, and fashion was the angle into photography for me. It was incredible to see photographs by Irving Penn or Helmut Newton. I was really intrigued by that, and that's what led me to New York City.

Many of my family members are teachers in the arts, and I picked up the camera years ago, in high school.

I wasn't familiar with Patti [Smith ]much at all. When I was asked to photograph her, my wife said, "Oh my God, Patti Smith!" So I looked at some Robert Mapplethorpe books and I recognized those pictures.

I think those moments in Patti's [Smith] bedroom really helped the film [Dream of Life] out, and those moments existed because of the trust between us. There isn't any real self-consciousness in the film because we all like each other.

Fashion's been really good to me. It financed Patti Smith: Dream of Life.

Fashion has also been a great outlet, and I'd like to do more fashion photography in the future. I also photograph a lot of artists.