Ask me about my influences as an artist, and I’d have a completely different set of answers. I would point to music and musicians. I’d point to poets and poetry. All of which have nothing to do with photography directly as far as the craft is concerned. But ask me about artists, and the first person that I’ll likely mention is Egon Schiele, whose work when I first saw it in a Tower Records book section in 1991 or so blew me away. It was the first time ever that I picked up a picture, one of his self-portraits, examined it, and said to myself, “that’s exactly how I feel.” That connection, or whatever you want to call it, was inspiring.