It seems like with digital cameras anyone can try to be a “photographer.” What’s your take on that?
I think its wack. I think anybody can buy a nice digital camera if they have a little bit of money and be able to take pictures. But to call themselves a photographer? I mean you could ask most of them about what it takes to make a photo happen and they probably wouldn’t know anything about depth of field or F stops or shutter speeds or anything. They just push a button and there they go. I think it’s killing the whole art of photography. People don’t respect what a real photographer does anymore.
Do you think that true old school photography is a dying art?
Completely. Black and white labs are closing. Polaroid is going out of business. Most film companies are dying out. Kodak is mainly focused on selling digital cameras now. It’s definitely dying. I still shoot black and white, and that’s rare. Most people shoot in color digitally and then change it to black and white on the computer and call it a black and white photo. But it doesn’t have the same texture and quality, and it’s just kind of corny. But whatever, that’s where it’s going. Even a lot of the old school heads are changing over to digi now. I recently had a conversation with my friend Estevan Oriol, and we were talking about this. He ain’t changing over, and I ain’t changing over, so we’ll just see where we end up.
Would you say your photography has changed over the years?
Of course. I started not knowing a damn fucking thing about what I was doing and lost thousands of dollars on wasted film, and it made me realize that I had to learn what I was doing. I’m not the best technical photographer, but I can definitely produce a nice image.
Last question, there doesn’t seem to be much known about you outside of your circles, is there any reason for that?
I’ve never really put myself out there, or tried to “showcase” my work and all that. But I guess a lot of people respect what I do so I’m trying to get better about giving people access. I’ve got this tour coming up and some more projects coming up so people will see my work. But as far as people knowing about me personally, I just don’t really care.
