I started drawing when I was about 2, mostly pictures of my mother and my sister. When I got into school, instead of taking the notes that I should have been taking, I was drawing in all of my notebooks. It was an artwork thing for me at first.
It was a long time ago: I was 13, and my dad actually sent photos to two different agencies of all of my family, and I had no idea.
That's what I paint, I paint people. They're portraits, but you won't always be pleased with the way you look in my paintings. Which is fine, I guess. Unless you're buying it, and it's of your kid!
Photography freed painting from a lot of tiresome chores, starting with family portraits.
My dad was a photographer, so we had all these studio portraits of us.
When I found photography, I found this other kind of portraiture of black families and black people who were photographing themselves or having themselves photographed in ways they wanted to be seen.
How many pictures have you torn up because you hate them? What ends up in your scrapbook? The pictures where you look like a good guy and a good family man, and the children look adorable - and they're screaming the next minute. I've never seen a family album of screaming people.
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.
Photographing friends means that there's a spontaneity to the images. I have a lot of love for my friends and family, and I love taking cool pictures of them.
Many people keep photos in their homes, in their office, or in their wallet, and happy families tend to display large numbers of photos at home. In 'Happier at Home,' I write about my 'shrine to my family' made of photographs.
For proper family portraits it's best to stick with classic, timeless looks that will not only be beautiful now but also in 20 years, and keep the wardrobe color palette similar so it looks like the group shot was well planned.
I got into photography when my kids were little, and I continued talking pictures over the years.
What ends up in your scrapbook? The pictures where you look like a good guy and a good family man, and the children look adorable - and they're screaming the next minute. I've never seen a family album of screaming people.
Of what use are pedigrees, or to be thought of noble blood, or the display of family portraits, O Ponticus?
Kids love to look at pictures of themselves.
My mother, all of her sisters and my siblings all went through a stage from the age of about 15 to 19 where they widened and then lengthened. Had I not been modelling, that would have been a phase that was in a family photo album rather than in Vogue.
Normally, whenever I try to photograph my mother, she is extremely impatient and will only stand for a minute and insists on knowing exactly what I'm doing.
A study of family portraits is enough to convert a man to the theory of reincarnation.
