The Chateau Marmont is one of my favorite spots in the entire city. It’s the perfect place if you want to get into some trouble. Lunch is nice there because even though you’re right on the strip, you can’t hear a thing. Gary Oldman said it all in Basquiat, "Do you know how hard it is to find a decent conversation in this town?"

The shoot took place in the Craig Ellwood bungalow. My buddy Paul Minor who directs commercials and has shot videos for Muse, Glasvegas, etc. etc. etc. tagged along to help out. I shot Rinko Kikuchi from Babel and she did such a great performance that she was nominated for a Golden Globe and eventually an Oscar.

Diego Uchitel is a photographer that I've admired forever (and been known to stalk him on his Bebe campaigns) did this amazing spread in The New York Times Sunday Magazine. Rinko was wearing a Coco Chanel dress similar to the gowns featured in Diego’s shoot. So I said to myself, if Diego was here what would he do? Paul and I have similar tastes and we both agreed on the a grey seamless and put it right there on the patio and let the ledge act as a flag to create this nice fall off and shoot it open shade. Teen Vogue was there with all there assistants, HMI’s going through windows, strobes etc etc. Paul and I looked at each other and just shook our heads because we both know you don't need tons of gear to create a beautiful image.