You said when you were taking these pictures of Romania, you just wanted to leave, but you didn't leave. If I cave in, if I fold up because of the emotional obstacles that are in front of me, I'm useless. There is no point in me being there in the first place. And I think if you go to places where people are experiencing these kinds of tragedies with a camera, you have a responsibility. The value of it is to make an appeal to the rest of the world, to create an impetus where change is possible through public opinion.
Public opinion is created through awareness.
My job is to help create the awareness. I became a photographer in order to be a war photographer, and a photographer involved in what I thought were critical social issues. From the very beginning this was my goal. I began after college, about 1972. I began to teach myself photography.