From Orson Welles' "The Lady from Shanghai" to Woody Allen's "Play It Again, Sam", unforgettable scenes of some great movies had taken place in Sausalito, California. Do you like that city? How do you spend your one day?

Yes I like Sausalito very much. Living in a place and visiting a place are however quite different. Sausalito is part of the greater San Francisco bay area and I would urge anyone visiting not to limit their time to just Sausalito, do some research ahead of time and then seek out anyone who lives there and get some advice on where to go and where not to go.

Your Iceland photographs look very beautiful and mysterious. Why did you choose Iceland for creating a photo set? What does the country make you feel?

I chose Iceland because after my first visit there I was captivated by the landscape and its people. Iceland is my spiritual home and has been a source of inspiration for many artists as well as myself. It makes me feel I am alive whenever I am there.

What kind of equipments do you use? Do you only prefer working with digital cameras or are you still interested in taking photographs in traditional ways?

I use primarily 8 X 10 and 4X 5 view cameras as well as older model medium format cameras. I then scan film and make adjustments as I see fit. I only use digital cameras for commercial work when requested to do so. I much prefer traditional ways.

With their colors and compositions, most of your photographs make us feel lonely and sorrowful. Even if there is a person in the picture, glances of him or her are cold and meaningful. Maybe that’s why you chose Iceland for one of your beautiful photo sets. Do you agree with that opinion? If you were asked which season is your favorite, would your answer be autumn?

It's funny that you say that, It's not my intent. The images in Iceland are based on classic myths that tend to be of a more serious nature. The weather in Iceland is just as you see it in my work, beautiful and at the same time cold and lonely (it rains a lot and you have to accept it as part of the beauty). Most of the images where taken in summer and as I live in California I would say summer is my favorite season, autumn and spring a close second.

In advertising photography, it mustn’t be too easy to keep your own style. In what ways do you work with agencies or clients? Do you often have chance to create your own sets and ideas or they are the ones who always tell you what to do? Could you please tell us about your working process?

Advertising makes it difficult to keep your sense of style as it mostly require you to sublimate to the clients wishes, but you must try and force your vision into any project without of course causing too much friction or upsetting people who are paying you to shoot their idea. My working process is to get as much time as I can to prepare for a project and then collaborate to find a solution with my team. Even if the client is coming to me with an idea based on work I have done in the past Advertising is still very challenging. Putting together a proper team of stylists, assistants and locations is the key to a successful shoot. (I am fortunate to have my wife as my head stylist and collaborator.)

Do you feel as comfortable and free in outdoor shoots as you do in indoor?

Yes I do. The benefit to shooting outdoors is that eventually the sun goes down (except of course in the Icelandic summer, when the sun never really sets) and you are forced to finish as opposed to never finishing in the studio because the set can stay up for weeks!

Are you interested in cinema? If so, which directors do you find closer to yourself in terms of visual comprehension?

Yes. I have shot a short film in Iceland and it just won a bronze medal in the San Franciso International Short Film Festival. That my friend is a difficult question and I would not wish to compare myself in anyway to the people I admire as directors. All I can say is I am influenced by many directors, here are a few: Jean-Piere Melville, Gillo Pontecorvo, Andrei Tarkovsky, Elem Klimov, Krzystof Kieslowski, Fassbinder, Coppla ,Wong Kar-Wai, Darren Aronfsky, Herzog.....I could go on.

Do you see yourself as someone who realized his goals?

Yes and no. I fell you must constantly reset your goals if you wish to continue achieving them.

Theme of Bak Magazine’s 10th issue is "Why?" What comes into your mind first when you think about that word? Please feel free and use your imagination. Create your own “why” and ask it to someone.

You say why? I say Why not! Sometimes there is no answer to why. Why is the eternal question we spend our lives trying to find out. we may never know.