I Have Always Felt As Though I

I Think Maybe The Rural Influence In My Life Helped Me In A Sense, Of Knowing How To Get Close To People And Talk To Them And Get My Work Done.

I Was Born To A Black Childhood Of Confusion And Poverty. The Memory Of That Beginning Influences My Work Today, It Is Impossible Now To Photograph A Hungry Child Without Remembering The Hunger Of My Old Childhood.

I Picked Up A Camera Because It Was My Choice Of Weapons Against What I Hated Most About The Universe: Racism, Intolerance, Poverty. I Could Have Just As Easily Picked Up A Knife Or A Gun, Like Many Of My Childhood Friends Did... Most Of Whom Were Murdered Or Put In Prison... But I Chose Not To Go That Way. I Felt That I Could Somehow Subdue These Evils By Doing Something Beautiful That People Recognize Me By, And Thus Make A Whole Different Life For Myself, Which Has Proved To Be So.

I Saw That The Camera Could Be A Weapon Against Poverty, Against Racism, Against All Sorts Of Social Wrongs. I Knew At That Point I Had To Have A Camera.

I Have Always Felt As Though I Needed A Weapon Against Evil.