1. My upbringing

I HAD a brilliant upbringing in the east end of Glasgow. I was surrounded by the kindest souls and my adoptive mother and father, who would have done anything for you. I had an amazing time.

My birth mother was from the Highlands. She had me when she was 22. She moved to Glasgow so she wouldn’t bring shame on her family for falling pregnant.

Just before I was born – and she did this because she was looking out for me – she jumped on a bus to Edinburgh because she thought I’d have a better chance in life if I was adopted there. Ironically, two days after I was born, I was adopted and taken to Provenmill in Glasgow. All of this was unbeknownst to me until, when I was 14, I found the adoption certificate in my mother’s handbag.

I had the most secure upbringing. To me, there was never any doubt or questions or anger. All I knew was that I had good people all around me.

I met my birth mother when I was 28, after I’d lost both my parents. I wanted my birth mother to know that everything was OK. She’d lived all over the world. She told my stepfather that I might come back into her life at some point and it worked out very well.

I was in Sophia Loren’s house in Geneva when a mate phoned me to tell me he’d found her. That was 20 years ago and we’ve got on great ever since. We had a shared desire for travel and to understand people and find things off the beaten track. There’s a shared optimism, a common love of art. My mum would probably say I’m greetin’ face.

2. People

PEOPLE are the most important thing of all. People are people to me, we are all one big family. We all suffer from the same things. I grew up with an extended family, the boys from the next close were like brothers to me.

You learn so much from people too. I don’t care where someone comes from, only where they hope to go. I remember making a portrait of the Duke of Devonshire. I didn’t know what I was going into. I knew people had preconceptions about someone like that.

This wee old guy came out in his old bathrobe with holes in his slippers. It was about ’97.

The first thing he asked was how Gazza was getting on in Glasgow.

He loved Scottish art. We had a lovely conversation for about four hours. I know families grow up in schemes who can’t feed their kids, but there’s good in everyone.

I am a humanitarian before I am anything. What does it matter where you are from? It is easy to judge but I don’t think you learn much from that. If you don’t judge you learn a lot about yourself.

3. In Search Of Eustace

THIS was my most meaningful portfolio. I made this when my daughter, Rachel [photographed by David Eustace, above], was 16 and we travelled across America together. Anthropologie, a clothing company, wrote me a cheque and let me do what I wanted. My daughter is now a fashion designer for H&M in Stockholm. It was about a young girl moving away from her family but wanting to learn more about herself and her family. The power and importance of that is that one day, her grandchildren will see her as a young person. That to me is the most important work I’ve ever done. One very successful Californian businessman, who was in his 70s, saw his grand-daughter looking at it online. He ended up taking his 90-year-old mother on a road trip. That’s the power of photo-graphy. It leaves a memory that you can’t get any other way. I love the idea that, when my daughter is an old woman and I’m long gone, her grand-daughter will see her in her youth.

4. Education

I TRAVELLED through to university every day for three years. I loved it and I was surrounded by a whole new world. I am Dumbledore as Chancellor now at Napier (pictured above). When I was offered that responsibility I wanted to contribute more.

I launched a thing called the Chancellor’s Talk Series. I remember seeing schools in New York bringing in amazing lecturers. I didn’t understand why we couldn’t do that in Scotland. It was all about diversity, giving people an opportunity to hear from someone they might not otherwise be able to learn about.

We launched it with Milton Glaser, who came up with the I heart NY logo – it was brilliant. We followed it up with Jeremy Thomas, who won an Oscar for producing Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor; and followed that up with Ann Daniels, who is the first woman to trek to both the North and South Poles.

We also got James Wolffe QC and had JJ Chalmers a few weeks ago - he’s a former Royal Marine who wanted to be a broadcaster. He was injured in Afghanistan and took part in the Invictus games, before realising his broadcasting dream. These incredible spirits, voices and minds feed you.

In education, we have a responsibility. I love the idea of 18-year-olds sitting with 88-year-olds. Both will learn and inspire each other – it’s us who are in the middle who cause all the chaos. I also want to bring the worlds of art, commerce and education together.

5. Work

I NEVER judged people when I worked in the jail [as a prison officer at Barlinnie prison in Glasgow] ... that wasn’t my job. I grew up with half the guys who ended up in jail.

My role was to help people. You had to try to understand their point of view. It was the essence of what I’ve taken through to everything in my life now.

I remember more of the bigger picture than the faces. I remember how they were. I remember the experiences, the laughs and the tears. You’d open one door and the person wanted to hug you, another and they’d want to kill you and another where they’d be hanging from the bars.

I’m getting involved in a charity with a lot of ex-offenders. A lot of them remembered me and we had a laugh. Prison is a village in itself.

When I worked there, I’d go home at night, but prisoners don’t and a lot of people react differently in prison than they otherwise would because of fear.

The best educators we have in prisons are people who have done the time. I was at HMP Edinburgh the other week for the charity programme.

They have the fathers of prisoners coming in to play football with the sons. A lot of people think it’s a bad idea, but I don’t. What I learned was that you can’t give up on people in prison.

6. Camera

I CAME to photography when I was about 28. I took a camera on holiday to Ibiza that I’d borrowed from someone. It was just to take holiday snaps. Back in the day, few people had a camera. I taught myself the basics and fell in love with it. They were probably the worst holiday snaps ever – I was taking pictures of flaking paint, trying to put movement into the pictures. I don’t know why I was trying to do these things.

Photography sort of found me. I came back and joined a camera club and I got accepted into the photography course at Napier.

Picking up a camera opened up a world that I couldn’t have imagined. Back in the day, to be recognised, you had to be very good. You can present your work to a world audience today in a few minutes.

Photographers like Don McCullin or James Nachtwey present a world that unites us in embarrassment at how savage we can be to one another.

Photography forces you to acknowledge things that you’d normally run away from. It humbles us. Now, we are inundated with images. We have better photography and writing now than we ever had, but a lot of it gets suffocated.

I’ve seen amazing places and met interesting people but the camera is the common denominator. I’ve met a lot of celebrities and legends.

A legend has found something they’ve fallen in love with. I’ve done a lot of work with Paul McCartney [above, photographed by David Eustace]. He loved his music as much as he loved his family. Everything else, the wealth and all that, was just a bonus. I like to photograph people I find interesting - I don’t care what they do.

7. Losing photographs in a fire

I LEARNED from it, that was one of the things about losing the negatives. I lost a third – maybe more – of my life’s work. I learned a brilliant lesson. If you were to ask any photographer to describe that, they’d have said it was awful – it was hell. I was grateful. Nobody died.

The second thing was that the film I lost, its purpose was to record an event. I take away memories from shooting pictures. That piece of film only recorded that moment. In the fire, the film recorded a second moment in my life. There was a positive to it all. Maybe one day I’ll put an exhibition on of the burnt negatives. I’ve always tried to see life that way.

8. Standards

I CAN’T take good photographs or bad photographs. I do what I do. There’s two ways you can approach life. You can enjoy it or get out like a bear with a sore bum. I have always been of the mindset that I am outward looking. I’m probably just a nosey bastard.

I worked for Conde Nast after graduating, which took me to GQ, Tattler and Vogue. I was dedicated and pushing myself as far as I could. I had to make a lot of sacrifices. I wasn’t there for a lot of the time my daughter was growing up. I did it with the hope that it would give us a living and give her greater experience when she got older. I tell people that it’s all about five easy steps: The first is to give up a well-paid secure job; the second is to expect sleepless nights and hard graft. The third is being prepared to spend time away from your wife and young daughter. Once you’ve done those, I’ll tell you the other two.

9. Travel

I WAS always open to visiting new places and trying new things. I have been all over the world, but home still attracts. I spent 25 years making a portfolio of the Hebrides. I know a lot of people who have never travelled and they know a lot, and I know a lot of people who have travelled and they know f*** all. Travel does enrich the spirit, but no more so than an open mind. Why go around the world to only find like-minded people? Every one of your neighbours has a story to tell. I remember being at a very posh event on a boat and there was a guy on the crew that no-one was speaking to. I’ve served in the Navy, so I went and spoke to him. It turned out he was the first man to row single-handedly across the Atlantic.

10. Hope

HOPE is very important to me. When you see what hope is to people, you realise how powerful it is. The only thing that people who have nothing can retain is hope. The power that people attach to it is so important.

The biggest thing I took from Scotland’s referendum was the amount of young people who got involved in the debate. It showed the education we have in this country and the decency we have. It made me proud to be Scottish.

I think David Attenborough should run things. I wouldn’t let most politicians run a bath. We were once a nation of pioneers and mavericks. It’s still in our genes. We have compassion, hope and decency and you can’t buy that.