For me, the most important thing I learned was just honing my eye. I think I had a good eye.
From Herb Ritts
Actually, when I first started dabbling in photography, I was still working for my parents as a salesman.
Generally, the French highly promote culture and the arts, and photography is in their blood.
I think knowing people by first names, not by what they do sexually, is really what it's about. Not being afraid. Fear is the enemy. I've always been comfortable with being gay.
I was an economics major, which I enjoyed because I had a good business sense.
Regardless of whether you speak the language or are familiar with a culture, the picture should hold up.
That's why I felt so at home when I went to Africa. It didn't matter that I was halfway around the world in a foreign country, because all those elements are universal. And I think that's one thing about my work: It's universal.
The education, the cultural awareness, is different in Europe, especially in France, from that in the United States. So I think the public will be much more appreciative of many images.
Well, I liked it - that was the main thing. I liked it, but I didn't think of it in terms of a career. I didn't really know; I didn't really think about it. One thing just led to another until finally I quit my job as a salesman and found myself working as a photographer.
What I particularly liked was that, coming from California and not being involved in the New York scene, I developed my personal way, in my own way, at my own pace.
2 perspectives
1 perspectives