A fortuitous meeting with the objective
Greenfield lawsThe journey of photography was as unexpected as the ephemeral moments that she would later capture masterfully. New Yorker for life passionate about art, dance and travel, she first discovered the power of the camera during a trip to high school in Arizona. Armed with a simple Brownie camera, she photographed an Apache Indian reserve, preparing the field without knowing for a career that would redefine the limits of dance photography. This first experience sparked a fascination for the medium, although it would take several years before it kisses it fully as its artistic call.
His path to dance photography was just as fish. While working for The Village Voice, she had the opportunity to shoot on Dance criticism Deborah Jowitt. Unlike traditional dance photography, which often documents choreographed sequences, Greenfield has sought to capture something completely different – spontaneous and high risk movements that existed for a fraction of a second, beyond the limits of human perception. The freedom granted by the voice of the village allowed him to experiment, and soon, the dancers and the companies were impatient to see what would emerge from his unconventional approach. Rather than simply recording the movement, she sought to reveal something invisible: the illusion of the weightlessness, the frozen energy of a movement that could never be repeated.
The interaction between dance and photography has become the foundation of its artistic philosophy. Rather than using the camera to document the movement, she used it to create something completely new – moments that only existed in the captured frame. By eliminating the context and the landing, it produced images that have challenged logic, showing the dancers in the Amounts environment, not linked by gravity. For Greenfield, a photograph was not a simple recording of a performance but of a collaboration between two forms of art, each improving and defies the other unexpectedly.
Greenfield laws: the art of spontaneous creation
At the heart of Greenfield's work is a refusal to predict the result. Each session begins with a question – only if? Or let's try this. Unlike photographers that meticulously plan their compositions, it thrives on uncertainty, embracing the unknown as an essential element of creativity. This approach guarantees that each image she captures exceeds the borders of her imagination, even offering surprises. If a concept feels too predetermined, it abandons it, believing that the real artistic discovery has just pushed beyond what is already envisaged.
Its studio environment reflects this philosophy. It is not a controlled and rigid space but a dynamic and collaborative playground. With the music that sets up the mood, the dancers move freely, inspired by rhythm, while his assistants play a crucial role – adjusting the lighting, launching accessories and operating a range of hair to accentuate the movement. Despite the high level of technical precision required, the Greenfield method is based on improvisation. Working with a Hasselblad camera that lacks autofocus, she and her team use measured band marks to ensure the perfect distance between the subject and the lens. Each photo is attached to a computer monitor, allowing immediate feedback, but the final image is always an unpredictable result of the dancer movement and the moment when the shutter clicks.
Greenfield's photographs question the conventions of dance and photography. By capturing movements that cannot be repeated, it retains ephemeral moments that even the dancers themselves could never reproduce consciously. His images exist in a space between reality and illusion, inviting viewers to question the very nature of movement and time. Through its objective, dance becomes something more than performance – it turns into a sculptural act and defying the gravity frozen in a single frame.
Explore reflections and widening of perspective
Beyond his fascination for the movement, Greenfield has long been attracted to reflections, a motif that has played an important role in its artistic evolution. Since her beginnings as a photojournalist in the 1970s, she has experienced mirrors and reflective surfaces, intrigued by the way they widen the prospect of a photograph. By incorporating reflections, it blurs the boundaries between the dancer's body and its double image, creating compositions that question visual logic. In some of his most striking works, it is impossible to discern where the physical form ends and his mirror counterpart begins.
This fascination for reflections is more than a stylistic choice – it talks about the deeper artistic intention of Greenfield. Just as she seeks to capture moments that escape the naked eye, she also strives to present perspectives that challenge the rational explanation. Although it meticulously controls many aspects of its photograph, the reflections introduce an element of unpredictability. They offer several points of view in a single frame, sometimes revealing details that otherwise remain hidden. In this way, they reflect its broader artistic mission: to push beyond conventional perception and presents reality in a way that seems impossible but undeniably real.
His work with reflections is perfectly aligned with his interest in transcending photographic limitations. Like his dance portraits defying gravity, these images disturb the spectator's expectations, making the extraordinary familiar appear. Thanks to reflections, Greenfield extends the photographic framework into something multidimensional, which questions the idea that one image should only capture one perspective. By kissing unpredictability, she invites viewers into a world where movement, light and perception merge into something completely new.
Greenfield laws: push the limits of photography
Greenfield's relentless curiosity continues to conduct its artistic evolution. Although she has exposed her work on a global scale – from China and Australia to Italy, in France and beyond – she remains deeply engaged in the experimentation of new ways of reinterpreting her images. Never content with rehearsal, she constantly seeks new approaches to push her creative limits. In recent years, she has explored the possibilities of superimposing several photographs, overthrowing images between black and white backgrounds, and even animating fixed images to create moving visuals. Each experience is an extension of its main philosophy: this photograph does not consist in capturing what is seen but in discovering what is beyond perception.
His latest explorations involve a superposition of digital images at times that overlap, further distorting the traditional limits of time and movement. By merging different instances in a single framework, she creates compositions that suggest fluidity, strengthening the idea that no moment in dance – or life – exists in isolation. This technique deepens not only the complexity of his work, but also underlines his commitment to constant reinvention. Even after decades of pioneering dance photography, she refuses to settle in a single style, always looking for new ways to challenge herself and her audience.
Greenfield's impact on photography and dance is undeniable. By rejecting traditional documentation in favor of artistic transformation, it redefined how movement is captured and perceived. His photographs are not only images of dancers; These are studies on suspension, spontaneity and interaction between control and chaos. Through its objective, the impossible becomes tangible and the ephemeral beauty of the movement is preserved in a way that transcends time. Whether through a single frozen moment or a composition in changing moments, Greenfield continues to extend the limits of what dance photography can be.
