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.