What does art mean to me? I never really think about the 'meaning' of art. Yet, obviously, that's what I do.
Gerard Malanga
New York City has changed enormously. My gut impression of it now is that it's like being in a sci-fi novel: 'Blade Runner' syndrome. Nothing seems real anymore; everything is pre-packaged.
If I'm astonished by what I've done, then I know I've been somewhere in the making of it but not during the making of it. Only after the fact. If I'm not astonished, then I've failed in the making of it.
Be happy in what you do. Be respectful of yourself. Do good works for others, and the goodness will come back to you and make you a better person. I think that's what happiness is all about.
I always had the feeling, even when I started, that my photography was meant to be archival in nature. Sort of like wine, I guess - they get better with age.
I've always considered myself a poet in everything that I do, whether it's photography or movie-making.
When I started writing poetry in my senior term of high school - I was sixteen - I felt in touch with a secret language. It gave me a sense of identity. I suddenly discovered I wasn't alone.
All that I've done in my life thus far, all the poems and all the pictures, are not so much an intermingling of my life with art but a divine accident.
I seem to be always returning to photography in my poetry. I guess you could say that I'm documenting the personal history and relationship I have with photography.
Whether it's a poem I'm working on or a picture I've snapped, it all has to do with the curiosity I feel without thinking about it.
The nature of photography has always resisted that temptation of interpretation. I look, and what I see looks back at me.
As a photographer, I don't really have a view of the world in general. Someone taking pictures for 'National Geographic' might. Each of us works to our full capacity when we're in the midst of a shoot. Each of us finds our own level of intensity, and that's the fun of it.
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!
