Her dance photographs are internationally known and immediately recognisable by their square format. Loïs Greenfield delimits the dance space to better seize the uplift and weightlessness that every dancer masters every day. Better than a portrait, Sylvie Fleurot’s film offers a demonstration of the photographer at work.

Loïs Greenfield’s project: "free the dancer from gravity and oppose to the latter the material of air". Her photographs eliminate the notion of top and bottom to seize the danced movement in its most ephemeral form: its crossing of space. This search is at odds with the situation of representation and requires studio work that is strongly akin to staging, even though the movements interpreted come from a performance. Four dancers and/or choreographers played along here: Mark Tompkins, Stéphanie Aubin, Emmanuelle Huynh and Didier Silhol. The camera filmed their work and juxtaposed the photographer’s shots, accurately highlighting the ephemeral nature of the movement and its capture in the photographic frame.

Source : Fabienne Arvers

Lois Greenfield began her career as a photojournalist, but was drawn to the graphic potential of dance. She covered the experimental dance scene for the Village Voice from 1973 to the mid 90’s. In 1982, she decided to open a studio where she could not only control the lighting, but could also direct the dancers in her exploration of the expressive possibilities of photographed movement. Her unique approach to photographing the human form in motion has radically redefined the genre and influenced a generation of photographers.

She has created signature images for most of the contemporary dance companies, from Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater to American Ballet Theatre. Many of these photos have appeared in her two bestselling books- Breaking Bounds, 1992, and Airborne 1998, both published by Thames and Hudson LTD, UK and Chronicle Books US.

Her latest book, Lois Greenfield: Moving Still, from the same publishers, was released in 2015, and the accompanying exhibit has been on tour within the US and to Russia, China, and Colombia.

Commercial clients have picked up on the metaphorical potential of her vision. She has created ads and campaigns for clients including Disney, Orangina, Proctor & Gamble, Pepsi, AT&T, Sony, Hanes, Raymond Weil, and Rolex.

Since her first show at New York City’s International Center of Photography in 1992, her work has been exhibited in many museums and galleries, such as the Tel Aviv Art Museum, Israel; the Venice Biennale, Italy; the Musée de l’Elysée, Switzerland; the Erarta Contemporary Art Museum, Russia; and the Southeast Museum of Photography, Florida.

Lois has been fascinated by non-traditional forms of photographic presentation. Invited to participate in “Le Printemps de Cahors” in France, she projected her images onto a 30-foot high water screen in the Lot River. Set against the night sky, the water turned her crystal sharp photographs back into ephemeral moments, making the live experience seem like a product of the imagination.

Lois pioneered the use of live photography as an integral part of a dance performance. She collaborated from 2003 to 2007 with the Australian Dance Theatre on HELD, a dance inspired by her photography. Lois was onstage shooting the live action and her images were projected real-time as part of the performance. This award-winning dance was performed to sold-out audiences around the world, from the Sydney Opera House to Sadler’s Wells in London, the Joyce Theater in NYC to Theatre de la Ville, Paris.

In 2014/2015 Lois was an Artist in Residence at NYU/Tisch Department of Dance and New Media. In 2015, she was honored with the Dance in Focus award given by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Dance Films Association, and in 2016 she received a lifetime achievement award from The McCallum Theatre Institute in recognition of her ground-breaking contributions to the field.Photochorégraphie,  ainsi pourrait être définie l'activité créatrice de Lois Greenfield  depuis une vingtaine d'années. Donnant la primauté à la photographie,  l'Américaine refuse de se limiter aux images documentaires du reportage  de danse, dès ses débuts dans le domaine en 1973, peu après son arrivée à  New York. Une longue collaboration avec la presse, Village Voice, Dance  Magazine, Time ou Rolling Stone, lui permet d'approfondir ses  connaissances de la danse contemporaine. Fatiguée des contraintes liées  aux mauvaises conditions de prise de vue lors des spectacles ou des  répétitions, Lois Greenfield décide en 1980 d'ouvrir son propre studio,  se substituant progressivement au chorégraphe.|

Le mouvement des corps, le détail de chaque geste, ainsi que  l'expression des visages ou du regard, sont alors organisés pour une  mise en scène purement photographique. Ceci nécessite des danseurs une  maîtrise technique absolue, en particulier lorsqu'ils interviennent à  plusieurs dans le cadre relativement restreint de l'image, correspondant  à une largeur de 3.50 m. dans le studio. De telles acrobaties exigent  une précision extrême des danseurs, comme de la photographe.

La prouesse technique n'est plus vécue comme une contrainte. La  photographe propose à ses modèles d'oublier les chorégraphies imposées  et de laisser libre cours à l'expression personnelle de leur corps. La  liberté favorisant l'audace, la danse se fait plus expérimentale. La  création jaillit d'une collaboration entre chorégraphie (écriture des  corps en mouvement dans l'espace) et photographie (écriture par la  lumière), le corps en suspension apparaissant comme une métaphore de  l'instantané photographique, du temps suspendu.

Ainsi, Lois Greenfield place l'énergie cinétique au centre de sa  recherche. Elle explore les tensions qui résident dans le langage du  corps, notamment entre la pesanteur et la légèreté, l'effort et la  détente, ou entre les différentes directions des mouvements, la  verticale, la diagonale et l'horizontale. La confrontation de forces  divergentes instaure une dynamique dans l'image, et se fait l'écho des  tensions spécifiques au langage photographique, principalement le jeu  sur le cadre et le hors-cadre.

Dans sa recherche d'une esthétique personnelle, Lois Greenfield  refuse les poncifs de la photographie de danse, tels que l'usage du  flou, les effets excessifs de drapé ou l'instant décisif figé. Depuis  1982, elle exploite les particularités du format carré. La bordure noire  du film apparaît sur les tirages, afin de marquer l'espace blanc dans  lequel évoluent le plus souvent les danseurs. Cet espace abstrait, comme  illimité, met en valeur le modelé des corps et leur procure une  certaine atemporalité. Les danseurs sont-ils en pleine ascension ou  vont-ils bientôt tomber ? Dans les photographies récentes, les corps  semblent échapper aux lois de la gravité. Airborne, qui décrit  généralement un avion aéroporté, entre ciel et terre, exprime au mieux  cette sensation étrange de voir des danseurs en apesanteur.

Source :https://www.loisgreenfield.com

Dancer and director, earlier dancer, later director, then both, then art therapy but always the image, the images - still or moving - and the thought-danced movement. Joined the Anqa Collective in 2015.
Studies in Clinical Psychology, then training in Contact Improvisation Dance in the Contact Paris Workshop, with D. Silhol, S. Cotto, M. Tompkins, M. Muffat-Joly, A. Fournier, E. Veyron.. and the Americans founders of Contact Improvisation Dance Steve Paxton, N.Stark Smith, Lisa Nelson.

Practice, performances and teaching, courses and internships. Workshops for disabled children and elderly people in specialized institutions in the Paris region. Artistic workshops in primary and secondary schools.
Institutional and documentary video productions, including the film "Lois Greenfield, portrait of a photographer", with Odile Duboc, Emmanuelle Huynh, Stéphanie Aubin, D. Silhol, M. Tompkins. Iconography of the “Les Maisons Satie” museum Honfleur
Arles International Photography Meetings: Projects “The science of art”, Film for Ministry of Culture Iconography and Projects for the Visa pour l'image Photo-reportage Festival.
Source: Anqua