I Have Never Known Anyone

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.

You Know, The Camera Is Not Meant Just To Show Misery.

I Have Been Born Again And Again And Each Time, I Have Found Something To Love.

I Was There Less Than A Year Before I Was Assigned To The Paris Bureau. I Spent Two Years There And, In Fact, Before I Even Went On The Staff I Was Sent To Europe To Do Assignments Which They Wouldn't Normally Do For A Young Photographer Just Starting Out.

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.