Raymond Carver

Today is his birthday. He once said, "I am beginning to feel like a cigarette with a body attached to it." Not about this photograph but spoken to his very first interviewer in 1977, as reported in the introduction to Conversations with Raymond Carver, edited by Marshall Bruce Gentry and William L. Stull. I took this picture in about 1985 in his garage at his house in Syracuse, NY. A print of it is now in the permanent collection at The National Portrait Gallery, DC.

At Pain Quotidien

They had been enjoying themselves and had not stopped talking. Now it was time for them to settle up and concentrate on the business in hand. A moment's silence and also they were still. Click.

Rain on 5th Avenue

She protested for a moment against having her picture taken but her friend wanted it and she gave in. You do, we thought, attract attention if you dress well.

A donkey ride

The man's hand has a gentle but firm and reassuring pressure on the donkey, guiding it through the thin crowd of bathers and spectators. His stick keeps the animal going at a fast walk. Scarborough, Yorkshire, England, 1980.

Young musician

We went to the recording of one of Bravo's art reality shows "Work of Art" and Caroline spotted this girl in the crowd. She knew her as one of the children of a very musical family in Garrison. I went round to their house a few Saturdays ago and her mother was the perfect mother-of-a-beautiful-daughter-being-photographed. "I'd like to be a bit higher up." I murmured. A stool was produced in a matter of seconds. Not just a stool that a-wobble-and-you're-off-it, but a three step ladder that nobody can fall off. The girl took no notice of her mother. I was the conductor that day and her eyes were glued to the camera and her mother was invisible to us both. And when I asked for a black shirt mum and daughter agreed without fuss as to which one they thought I would like.