Lois Greenfield

With Airborne (1998), Lois Greenfield takes us to spectacular new heights, capturing moments of startling grace and power. In this second volume, Lois incorporates fabrics and props into her imaginary scenarios, adding to their mystery.

Greenfield, Lois, Daniel Girardin and William A. Ewing. Airborne. Chronicle Books (USA), Thames & Hudson (UK), 1998.

SHAM MOSHER

We poured flour over Sham’s head while he jumped. I wanted it to appear as though his figure had coalesced into that form for only a split second, before becoming a pile of flour on the floor.

ASHLEY ROLAND, DANIEL EZRALOW, FLIPPER HOPE, AND JACK GALLAGHER, Shot for Raymond Weil Watches

It's always a lot of fun to be asked to solve the problem of how to illustrate a concept with pure movement. This photo is from the advertising campaign “Precision Movements” for Raymond Weil Watches.

SHAM MOSHER

Sham brought with him a section of a 800 pound soft jute sculpture he had made, not knowing I would ask him to jump in it. Through the alchemy of photography what looks solid is really in flux.

BUFFY MILLER, "Frets and Women", BALLET TECH (Choreographer: Eliot Feld)

It is always a challenge to adapt a dance intended to be seen in a theater to the studio, where I don’t work with all those special effects. But what I lose in the translation is often compensated for in increased clarity of gesture and form. I love the ‘Picassoesque’ abstraction of her breast into pure geometry.

ASHLEY ROLAND

I wanted to create a dark powder counterpart to the shots of Sham Mosher taken with flour (Number 1). We were vacuuming cocoa dust off the floor for weeks after the shoot.

ASHLEY ROLAND

The mirror creates a fluid reflection, and the camera reveals this untruth with certainty. 

KATHY BUCCELLATO, RIKA OKAMOTO & CAMILLE M. BROWN

What is so interesting about working with these dancers, (formerly of the Martha Graham Dance Company)  whose bodies have been formed by a discipline such as Graham’s, however they improvise, they still capture something of the choreographer's distinctive style.

ANDREA WEBER, CHRIS HARRISON, ANDREW PACHO AND HARRISON BEAL Shot for Raymond Weil Watches

It was Andrea who introduced me to the Antigravity company. Together we executed this pinwheel shot for the Raymond Weil watch campaign.

GAIL GILBERT

A simple scarf transforms the dancer into a crumpled silhouette.

ASHLEY ROLAND

I am always drawn to the ambiguous moment, in which opposing realities are equally possible.

SHAM MOSHER

Using the cardboard cores from rolls of fabric, we set them up to look like a forest, but the shot ended up looking more like a musical instrument.

KATHY BUCCELLATO, RIKA OKAMOTO & CAMILLE M. BROWN, MARTHA GRAHAM DANCE COMPANY

We photographed this improvisational moment after a session shooting repertory. We recombined signature movements from Graham dances to make it look like a multiple exposure of one jump seen at three points.

ARTHUR AVILES

Tying a skirt to his wrists, it ended up looking like a parachute, or angel’s wings, or in this case a crescent moon.

ANDREW PACHO, FLIPPER HOPE, HARRISON BEAL, CHRIS HARRISON, ANTIGRAVITY DANCE COMPANY, Shot for Raymond Weil Watches

I had some of my favorite gymnasts doing somersaults in a circular formation to evoke the internal workings of a watch. The maneuver was not especially difficult for such talented performers: the challenge was in coordinating the timing of each gymnast and the height of each somersault so that they would form a circle in the air.

MARGIE GILLIS

The force of Margie’s legs thrown into the air sent her dress all the way to the other side, giving the illusion that the dress was solid and was supporting her one-armed handstand.

ELI MCAFEE, ALBERT ELMORE JR., HOPE CLARK, MATTHEW STROMBERG AND LISA DALTON, STREB/ RINGSIDE.

I caught these dancers on their way up, before their bodies formed a horizontal plane, and then crash landed.