I took my first picture when I was being birthed. It was in my mind’s eye. It’s a picture of the nurses looking at me to see if I was breathing, but I was just holding my breath. The doctor’s forceps almost poked me in the eye – an eye I would later need for focus.

Then later, in elementary school, I had the first exhibition of my work. Using a self timer, I shot a series of candids in real time of the bully that always beat me up on the playground. I later studied still life under Sal DeBungwole at Our Lady of Perpetual Emotion, College of Sights and Smells. Sal, now deceased, was a graffiti artist and acclaimed second unit forensic and crime scene photographer who in the 30’s worked for the NYPD.