I began photographing in 1946. Before that, I was a painter and drawer, with my mother and father's support. They were a bit pissed when I went into photography. They thought photographers were guys who took pictures at weddings.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
My dad was actually against me being a photographer. He thought it was a dead-end job and that you end up doing baby pictures and weddings.
I myself was a wedding photographer when I was, like, 16.
I came up, I suppose, a fairly traditional way. I went to art college. I always wanted to be a stills photographer, really, when I was younger, and I briefly worked as a stills photographer.
I was the official wedding photographer at one of my best friends' weddings. Fortunately she was one of the most easygoing brides ever, so she made it easy for me.
My mom was a medical photographer, but on the side, she did a before-and-after glam photography business in the house. She would do makeup and hair - and I was her assistant.
People of my generation who became photographers in the late fifties, early sixties, there were no rewards in photography. There were no museum shows. Maybe MOMA would show something, or Chicago. There were no galleries. Nobody bought photographs.
Aside from my modelling, by the early Nineties I was also starting to work as a photographer, which I loved.
My mom was a photographer and whenever they needed a baby for a modelling job, she'd stick me in front of the camera. That's how it started.
Photography belongs to a fraternity of its own. I was young and enthusiastic and wanted to take good pictures to show the other photographers. That, and the professional pride of convincing an editor that I was the man to go somewhere, were the most important things to me.
Actually, when I first started dabbling in photography, I was still working for my parents as a salesman.