When I first started, in the late 70’s I had a lot of energy – enough, in fact, I felt I could easily photograph the entire world. Afterall, it didn’t’ seem that big at the time. I didn’t have any desire to photograph celebrities – I would be happy to leave that up to others who found it so desirable. I wanted to photograph the common man, and I identified in some ways with the ordinary. I wanted to find the allure in the ordinary. Of course, street scenes and street life in foreign places look out-of-the-ordinary, perhaps even exotic - but to us. Not to those who live in them. I could care less about American celebrity. But we live in the world of note, a world of branding. So, with my work I was asked to photograph for Rolling Stone, Time, Esquire, Playboy, Fortune and others – and whether or not they could sing or make loads of money on a recently listed IPO really wasn’t important. What was important was to make them look good, important, "interesting". I think I succeeded, but I always preferred something more, which is a difficult balance, in the photographic scheme of things. In the commercial scheme of things. Beauty and imagination was a lure, and photographs are very well suited to documenting that sort of thing. When I was a child in middle class America other places seemed so exotic and curious. But it is all relative, isn’t it?

I always photographed environmental images so I could remember the sense of place. And for this I thank those that love old Rolleiflex 2 1/4 cameras because they are so quiet, discreet, and have a good, crisp lens.

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