My black-and-white work is more of a celebration, and the color work became more of a critique of society.

Over the years, I have perfected the art of dancing and photographing at the same time: it’s a great double act. If you’re dancing, you are joining in. If you stand there rigid, you are...

Part of the role of photography is to exaggerate, and that is an aspect that I have to puncture. I do that by showing the world as I really find it.

I am away so much, so I rarely see live TV, but I use iPlayer to catch programmes.

Photography is the simplest thing in the world, but it is incredibly complicated to make it really work.

I don’t like being flattered. It doesn’t suit my English sensibilities. Remember, we are the great country of understatement.

The idea of England in decline is very attractive.

I just go out and try to make sense of the world around me.

When someone says to you, ‘Oh, I don’t take a good picture,’ what they mean is they haven’t come to terms with how they look. They take a fine picture, it’s just that their image...

You can easily take photographs at a wedding – no one would question it. But funerals are different.

I am not a huge follower of music and tend to like one CD and play it to death, usually when I am washing up.

Wealthy people have not disappeared, they are just not so willing to show off their wealth.

I have been photographing people dancing for 20 or 30 years now, and I think I will eventually do a book of dancing photos.

The trouble with Hollywood films is that they always have a pleasant ending.

Most of the photographs people take with their cameraphones are of little value in terms of documentary.

As we travel around Britain, I am convinced most of us cannot really appreciate what we are seeing. We take too much for granted, because it is all so familiar.

I avoid Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, and if I need to communicate with someone, I email direct.

I am not as cross about Thatcher now as I was in the ’80s. Begrudgingly, I can see that some of her policies helped modernise Britain.

The thing about tourism is that the reality of a place is quite different from the mythology of it.

I never think of photographs as being individual. Always as a group.

TV-makers usually don’t know much about photography.

Of course, New Brighton is very shabby, very rundown, but people still go there because it’s the place where you take kids out on a Sunday.

I would urge everyone to start looking at the world in a different way. Spend some time looking at everyday objects, at their design, their shape, their individual characteristics. Think ahead and imagine their significance.

Margaret Thatcher was very good for the arts in so far as it gave people a real focus for something to be against.

I do read many of the photography magazines from the U.K. and abroad.

Criticism is hypocrisy; society is hypocrisy. I’m a tourist. I’m a consumer. I do the things that I photograph and can be criticized of.

I photograph people as I find them. But people have issues about how they look.

When I fly British Airways, I can’t help but read the free Daily Mail, which makes me glad I am leaving the country.

The knack is to find your own inspiration and take it on a journey to create work that is personal and revealing.

Photography is, by its nature, exploitative. It’s whether you use this process with a sense of responsibility or not. I feel that I do so. My conscience is clear.

Most of us, when we go out with a camera in our own country, try to find exotic subject matter to photograph.

I get up early and open my emails, write cheques, and answer the phone; whatever needs to be done.

When I am in London, all I do is mix with other people in the arts.

I photograph wealth.

You can’t shoot in sepia, so converting into black and white and then into brown makes everything feel less real.

There are 65 to 70 photography galleries in New York alone. In the U.K., there are no more than five, and they’re all in London.

I am kept awake by the list of possibilities for shooting more photos and deciding what I must prioritise next.

Sometimes you feel uncomfortable taking a photograph, but that’s all part of the job.

I love curating, because I’m lucky and privileged that I have a platform and I can share my discoveries with other people.

Fashion pictures show people looking glamorous. Travel pictures show a place looking at its best, nothing to do with the reality. In the cookery pages, the food always looks amazing, right? Most of the pictures...

I think the ordinary is a very under-exploited aspect of our lives because it is so familiar.

I pride myself in being an aficionado of the British seaside. Throughout my career, I have visited and worked in many of the famous British resorts, from Great Yarmouth to Largs.

In the ’70s, in Britain, if you were going to do serious photography, you were obliged to work in black-and-white. Color was the palette of commercial photography and snapshot photography.

Filming is always a challenge because I’m not used to it. But I approach it head-on. I’m not technically brilliant, but it’s the spirit that counts.

Taking photos is a form of collecting.

I toyed with the notion of being an actor, and am so glad that this whim did not go any further.

Tourism is the biggest industry in the world.

My father was an obsessive bird-watcher. The genes of observation passed down.

If you go to the supermarket and buy a package of food and look at the photo on the front, the food never looks like that inside, does it? That is a fundamental lie we...

Sepia in particular tends to make everything look a bit romantic and almost sentimental, hence the fact that it remains such a popular choice for wedding photographs.