Flash photography can be horrible. In the hands of an expert who knows how to bounce all that searing bright light in the right direction, it may make an impossible picture workable.
I love photography. And I just eat it up. I feel like I'm an encyclopedia, you know, inside.
My story with film is kind of different because I started with photography because my father was a photo buff. He had all sort of cameras, and I grew up with that.
My wife is great at giving input for my projects. She's good at naming places, she has pretty good taste in music, and as a model, of course, she's excellent when it comes to lighting.
My father thought photography was done by lowlifes.
I don't think I'm vain... but I do like to be lit well.
I'm a huge, huge fan of photography. I have a small photography collection. As soon as I started to make some money, I bought my very first photograph: an Henri Cartier-Bresson. Then I bought a Robert Frank.
I've been a photographer all these years... I haven't been in my own darkroom for 10 years.
Throughout my pictures I employ a lighting which is not naturalistic.
I used to do a lot of casual photography - back in the olden times when one used film - but it had fallen by the wayside over the years.
I believe in naturalistic lighting, which isn't to say natural light.
One of my all-time favorite photographers is Irving Penn. I wish I could have watched him work.
I see all these professional photographers out at the racetrack, and there's all these people across the world, taking really cool pictures and you're like, 'Man, I want to create that!' I had that mindset when I first grabbed a camera.
I find great lighting and a squint of the eyes makes anyone look better.
Rubber looks different to skin and it's very, very hard to make a prosthetic on a human look convincing if you don't light them correctly.
You don't need to retouch if you know how to light.
I learned early on that if I was to get attention, I would have to be charming. Even the models I've photographed are often like that. Some of them are not beautiful. But, if you catch them in the right light, they glow.
Photography is a demanding action sport. The light can change so quickly. I often find myself sprinting so that I can catch the perfect light falling on a photogenic subject.
It's more fun if you can control things like lighting and make special effects in the darkroom.
