I don't have lights, I don't have assistants, I just go and meet somebody and take a photograph. That's really basic, and that's how I used to work when I was 17 or 18 in Holland.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I want to do work that has a message and casts a light over an area that's dark. But I'm fun and jovial, too.
What I really try to do is photograph people at rest, in a state of serenity.
I was saying as a joke the other day that I love film editing, I know how to cut a picture, I think I know how to shoot it, but I don't know how to light it. And I realize it's because I didn't grow up with light. I grew up in tenements.
I live and work alone and travel light, relying largely on my memory and making a point of letting intuition guide my way.
Wherever there is light, one can photograph.
I will always find my light. No question. And if I don't, I'll know, because my dad will be the first person to call me and say, like, 'You need to have him bring another 2K in,' and 'Why aren't you using this sort of lighting gel?' The crew guys know that it's where I grew up.
I'd go down to the end of my street, to a garage that had a certain feeling about it, or a particular light; I'd take a picture of a friend who needed a head shot. That's how I learned, instead of having school assignments and learning camera techniques.
I've always liked street lights, and I've always photographed them. I probably have a collection of two to three thousand photographs of them, just around the city, mainly at night.
I've been an amateur photographer since my teens.
I'm a portrait photographer that's used to shooting celebrities, and I usually need time and all kinds of lights and a studio to set up my shots.