You always want to come back with an image that's interesting visually, and you hope to get something from the person you photograph that's different than other images you know of these people.
Portraiture keeps me humble. It's simple and straightforward. There is nothing more interesting I can make up than the figure sitting right in front of me.
I try and photograph people as they are. I do not want to hide anything. I want to bring across a personality, a humanity. It is not a case of model A or model B against a white background. I am interested in the person.
Sometimes photographing people is like pulling teeth, trying to get some sort of personality.
Most people stiffen with self-consciousness when they pose for a photograph. Lighting and fine camera equipment are useless if the photographer cannot make them drop the mask, at least for a moment, so he can capture on his film their real, undistorted personality and character.
I have to experiment with methods and I'm trying to find an authentic way of making an equivalent of the living, breathing person within the limits of a single picture.
A good photograph was never what I was looking for. I like to have a point. I had to have a point or I didn't have a picture. This is what I've always found so fascinating about paparazzi pictures. They catch something unintended, on the wing... they get that thing. It's the revelation of personality.
Did Robert De Niro actually look like Al Capone in 'The Untouchables?' Or did Van Kilmer look like Jim Morrison in 'The Doors?' No. It's the core, the essence of the personality that matters.
I photograph different people all the time. I like to shoot all kinds of people.
Painting has the ability to communicate something about the sitter that gets to his essence.
I like taking pictures of other people more than I like to take pictures of myself.
Your aim as a photographer is to get a picture of that person that means something. Portraits aren't fantasies; they need to tell a truth.
For a selfie, it's not about the pose, it's about you. There's a reason why you look great in the picture or you look great in real life, because someone has caught the essence of who you are, and a pose is not you.
The most difficult thing for me is a portrait. You have to try and put your camera between the skin of a person and his shirt.
The dog is the perfect portrait subject. He doesn't pose. He isn't aware of the camera.
It's shot by Ben Rayner who I think is very talented at doing portrait photography as well as fashion photography. His images never look like a model. You know, it doesn't look like a faceless model just wearing whatever. There's always personality that comes through. That was quite important for me to capture.
I would love to photograph Angelina Jolie. A friend of mine is working with her on her next film and told me what I was already suspecting, that she is extremely interesting. I have never seen a picture of her that conveys all of her complexity. That would be a fabulous challenge, to find that in a photograph.
Many photographers feel their client is the subject. My client is a woman in Kansas who reads Vogue. I'm trying to intrigue, stimulate, feed her. My responsibility is to the reader. The severe portrait that is not the greatest joy in the world to the subject may be enormously interesting to the reader.
I'm more interested in photographing people who have done something, like writers or directors - even billionaires - as long as I can study them before I photograph them.
A photographic portrait is a picture of someone who knows he is being photographed, and what he does with this knowledge is as much a part of the photograph as what he's wearing or how he looks.
Whenever I do someone's portrait, I'm trying to locate the photo in the lens while reaching into that person psychologically. There's the magic! I don't always achieve it. It's a hit or a miss!
