My intention is not to make clothes. My head would be too restricted if I only thought about making clothes.
When that shutter clicks, anything else that can be done afterward is not worth consideration.
When I first became interested in photography, I thought it was the whole cheese. My idea was to have it recognized as one of the fine arts. Today I don't give a hoot in hell about that. The mission of photography is to explain man to man and each man to himself.
A portrait is not made in the camera but on either side of it.
Every other artist begins with a blank canvas, a piece of paper the photographer begins with the finished product.
Photography is a medium of formidable contradictions. It is both ridiculously easy and almost impossibly difficult. It is easy because its technical rudiments can readily be mastered by anyonwith a few simple instructions. It is difficult because, while while the artist working in any other medium begins with a blank surface and gradually brings his conception into being, the photographer is the only imagemaker who begins with the picture completed. His emotions, his knowledge, and his native talent are brought into focus and fixed beyond recall the moment the shutter of his camera has closed.
Photography records the gamut of feelings written on the human face, the beauty of the earth and skies that man has inherited, and the wealth and confusion man has created. It is a major force in explaining man to man.
During the Cold War, we lived in coded times when it wasn't easy and there were shades of grey and ambiguity.
The second challenge is to make sure that, growing up in this culture, they have a healthy view of life and God and Scripture. So, that's my other challenge. So, finding that balance is certainly no easy task but it can be very fulfilling. So, that's part of what we talk about in this book.
If you are 8 hours a day in a job you hate, you're not going to be a very good spouse; it can contribute to chemical dependency, financial mismanagement.
I am really laid back and kind of go-with-the-flow, but I will never do anything that I don't believe in.