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

I just wanted to be Patti's [Smith] messenger and get her word out there.

We had a hodgepodge of footage. We didn't film [in Dream of Life ]all the time - we would just film periodically, so nothing was synced and nothing was slated.

I like not knowing too much about somebody I'm photographing, because the process also becomes an experience for me to learn about .

Patti [Smith] was my experiment, to be honest. And the film is what we got out of it. At the end of the day, I learned a lot about how to make a film.

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

It took 12 years to put this film [Dream of Life] together, but it was not until toward the end of those 12 years that I looked at Patti [Smith] and said, "Maybe we should do something with this footage."