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

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.

I never went to film school, so I just sort of learned on my own.

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

I was making a film [Dream of Life] about Patti [Smith], but I was taking pictures, too.

Angelo Corrao was our editor [in Dream of Life], and he was just so diligent and so old-school in the way he looked at editing. He would take my far-out ideas and tame them and make sense of them.

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