I don’t really have a favorite camera. I use a Leica and Canon a lot. It depends, especially professionally, on the requirements. But my carry-around camera is a Leica.
I see no difference between my pictures that people consider amusing and the rest. To me, it’s all serious work – they’re just a reaction to what I see. I don’t leave this apartment in the morning and say to myself ‘Today I’m going to be funny and tomorrow I’m going to be sad.’
I’m an amateur photographer, apart from being a professional one, and I think maybe my amateur pictures are the better ones.
If you’re not a curious person, you’re certainly not going to be a good photographer.
Somehow Photoshop and the ease with which one can produce an image has degraded the quality of photography in general.
The thing is that when you don’t carry a camera, that’s when you see pictures in particular, or at least that’s when you think you see pictures in particular. When you do carry it, if you do see one on the occasion that you do, you can take it.
It’s just seeing – at least the photography I care about. You either see or you don’t see. The rest is academic. Anyone can learn how to develop. It’s how you organize what you see into a picture.
You don’t study photography, you just do it.
Photography is an art of observation – it’s about creating something extraordinary out of the ordinary. You choose a frame and then wait until the right time for something magical to come along and fill it.
I wasn’t imposing my presence on anyone, which is very important for a would- be journalist. I stayed back. Always let people be themselves.
You have to devote yourself totally to be successful at it.
It’s about time we started to take photography seriously and treat it as a hobby.
The best things happen when you just happen to be somewhere with a camera.
A visual sense is something you either have or you don’t.
There’s no great mystique to photography. A lot of photographers like to put their hands up to their forehead and tell you how they’ve suffered and so forth. Well, I just rent a car and drive to the place and take the pictures.
I am serious about not being serious.
If you keep your cool, you’ll get everything.
If you’ve got no responsibility and don’t have to generate a certain amount of cash each month, and can live on a shoestring, and are ambitious enough, then you might have a chance. You can be dedicated but that is no guarantee that you’ll make it. I rely on a hunch, a little luck, and some cunning.
I am a professional photographer by trade and an amateur photographer by vocation.
I dislike landscapes. I only like people, and plastic flowers.