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

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.

I shot [Dream of Life] all on 16-millimeter, and I just wanted to learn about Patti [Smith].

At the beginning I didn't even really think about making a movie [Dream of Life]. I was just thinking of documenting somebody.

I quickly realized that Patti [Smith] was somebody very special.

Ultimately, the film [Dream of Life] is inspirational.

[Some] times I'd have sound but no image. When Patti [Smith] was singing with her guitar, or doing something amazing with her clarinet, I'd just mess around and record the sound. So we'd use those sounds as another layer in the film [Dream of Life].