I had asked Slick Rick to come to my studio. He had arrived with so much gold! Looked amazing. He sat down on my set and pulled out 2 tiny pistols. Just a moment caught in time with a crazy smile on his face. Totally unplanned.

My personal way to shoot people is to let them be themselves. It is my job to capture them as they are. And I love to shoot on location. Brazilian Girls outside the Nu Blu Club, NWA and the cop car in LA, HM Mexican Gang in their hood in East LA, Johnny Rotten at home with graffiti on the wall and overflowing ashtrays and Lily Allen backstage smoking a cigarette, etc...

I went to Holland to shoot The Police for their second album, "Zenyatta Mondatta". They were recording in a studio in the middle of a forest. I set up my cameras and strobes, in those days I worked without an assistant. I turned on the lights only to discover that the sync chord from the lights to my camera didn't work! So no strobes. We had to use the available tungsten lighting. That is why the cover shot of that album looks so orange.

What was the best unplanned photo shoot that you are the most proud of? For example, a different artist showed up to a shoot or the scheduled location did not work out, or the lights did not work, etc...?

The best shoots I think are unplanned. One of my favorite shots is Run DMC and posse in Hollis Queens. Run had picked me up at the train station and we walked to his street to meet the band and their friends. They were just hanging out on a spring day under the trees. I had my camera around my neck and started shooting. To me that is almost a perfect shot.