You re not always that lucky. A Haitian who saw my book came up to me and said that if I was from Haiti I could never have taken those photographs and that I would have never been invited to all those different places. This past year I was working in a very heavy political situation in Cypress. People there kept reminding me how important these kinds of meeting are, especially in societies in conflict where the political agendas are so stuck. Through interaction with other cultures, artist can play a tremendous role in a much larger global context.
Art has incredible symbolic meaning.
It is an act of engagement. I am always aware as I travel and report back that I am a messenger of some sort. A few years ago my mother died in a way that I thought was very premature and that I was very upset about. I took a little bit of the money that she had and I decided that one of the things that she cared about was traveling. I thought that, as a way of integrating the whole experience of having lost her, I would see the world.