READERSVOICE.COM: What part of New York do you live in and what parts of the city would you hang around at the most, and what kinds of places do you go, eg bars or restaurants etc?

MIKE KOBAL: I live in the East Village and like the restaurants and bars in the neighbor hood, esp Lucy’s bar on Ave A. I also like to run in CP [Central Park].

RV: What’s your daily routine from when you get up in the morning, what with fashion shoots or making music videos or anything else?

MK: Coffee, then go for a run. On long shoots, only coffee, fashion/editorial shoots usually take between 8-10 hours; video shoots take longer and often take two or three days. More Coffee.

RV: How did you find the people who shared their memories in your film 911, 2001-2011 Flashback?

MK: This wasn’t easy. I approached many people on the streets (East Village) and the flea market. A lot of turn downs, got lucky with the few who agreed to be part of it.

RV: Can you mention some of your favorite books of all time, whether fiction or non-fiction, photography-related or not, and maybe say why you liked them?

MK: Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and the rest of the series; and Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games and Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch novels, my favorite literary junk food.

RV: What do you like most about photographing the people of New York?

MK: People in candid situations, unpremeditated, instinctive reactions; to capture photographs of life, the reason I picked up the camera in the first place.

-copyright Simon Sandall.