Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
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All images ©Timothy Greenfield-Sanders “… I’m interested in what others have to say. Portrait photographers get to meet interesting people all the time.” —TIMOTHY GREENFIELD-SANDERS BY LORNA GENTRY MOVING PORTRAITS Timothy Greenfield-Sanders continues to forge ahead y work has always been about serial obsessions,” says portrait photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders. When he was in his “artist” period, he photographed more than 700 luminaries of the art world over a 20-year span. Then it was musicians— he photographed them by the hundreds. Later he turned his lens on more than 100 fashion designers, and then he fixated on stars of pornography. His latest image obsession is prominent African-Americans. Greenfield-Sanders’ obsession extends to collecting as well. His impressive photography collection is dwarfed only by his collection of paintings. Yet more than anything else, Greenfield-Sanders collects people. As much scientist as artist, he scrutinizes his subjects and records them on film, video and digital media, and catalogs the images in a vast archive, whole sections of which have been exhibited and published. For three decades, he has coaxed the most successful people in a variety of fields to pose before his 11x14 and 8x10 view cameras. In essence, Greenfield-Sanders’ bare-bones approach to portraiture ropes off the subject museum-style for close, aesthetic observation. All subjects are treated equally—celebrities, politicians, even the porn stars. Each steps in front of a plain background illuminated by a single light to go one-on-one with that enormous camera. If you stand back and take a long view of his considerable body of work—thousands of color and black-and-white portraits ranging in size from large to very large—you’ll see a theme emerge: Common to the images is the subject’s unmasked, unflinching stare. Greenfield-Sanders’ credits some of his finesse with people to his time in film school in the 1970s, where he picked up some acting techniques at the American Film Institute in L.A. “There are wonderful little ways to help people relax or be fresh in a scene,” he says. For example, if a shot is “looking stale,” he has the subject walk away and return, even if it’s to the same spot. “It gives you a different feeling.” He credits his huge camera as well. “The 8x10 camera is such an anachronism that people are amused by it, [it’s] almost like a circus prop. People are used to being photographed with a little 35mm camera with someone taking hundreds of images very quickly. I take a half-dozen Image appearance p. 102: Toni Morrison; p. 103: very thought-out images in a space of 5 to 10 minutes, and the subject is collaborative. I stand Bill T. Jones; p. 105 (clockwise, top left): Angela Davis, Al Sharpton, Suzan-Lori Parks, next to the camera, not behind it, and I see every gesture. At the last second I say, ‘Look at the Chris Rock; p. 106: Sean Combs, Bishop Barbara camera now, look into the lens,’ and boom I take the picture.” Harris, Vernon Jordan; p. 107: Lorna Simpson, Colin Powell, Zane; p. 108: Tyler Perry. Beyond technique is Greenfield-Sanders’ powerful persona—smooth, cool alpha male. He 104 • www.ppmag.com wears his self-confidence close as a wetsuit, called on friends Gore Vidal, John Waters, portraits and transcripts of the subjects’ repelling doubt in his dives beneath the and Salman Rushdie, among others, to responses to Mitchell’s probing questions. surface of his subjects. “The best way to write essays. Some of his friendships with Greenfield-Sanders wanted the Black approach a portrait is to listen to your the rich and famous began in film school, List films (Black List: Vol. 3 is his fifth film) subject and sense what it is that they’re but most have evolved through private, to be animated versions of his portraiture. afraid of,” he says. “I try to create a mood of commercial and commissioned portraiture. Subjects look straight into the camera and talk trust in the studio. Sometimes I have to show “I’ve stayed true to myself,” he says, noting frankly about their experiences as African- them that I’m trustworthy by sending signals, that stylistically his commissioned portraits Americans. “My idea was to take my unique consciously and unconsciously. That’s what a are no different from his personal work. “I style—the direct portrait—and bring it to good portrait photographer does. I usually never felt I could do lots of different types of life in film,” says Greenfield-Sanders. “In a know something about a person beforehand, photography. I was interested in people. It was way it’s radical filmmaking because there are but mostly I intuit. I’m a lightening-quick natural for me to become a portrait photog- no cutaways.” Just as he crafts portraits that study and I’m interested in what others have rapher because it’s a good way to meet people.” engage without gimmick, in his films, he to say. Portrait photographers get to meet Friendship helped forge a creative part- relies on beautifully lit people in unadorned interesting people all the time. At least, I do.” nership in 2006 with film critic Elvis Mitchell, settings speaking directly to the camera to his East Village neighbor in Manhattan. The make for compelling viewing. FAMOUS FRIENDS two are at work on their third HBO film, The He cites Andy Warhol, who sat for his Yes, Greenfield-Sanders has met many Black List: Vol. 3, tentatively scheduled to air camera, as an influence on his portrait and noteworthy people over the years. He makes early in 2010. The series features prominent film styles. He’s captivated by Warhol’s friends easily and keeps in touch. So for his African-Americans talking about being black minimalist black-and-white film series Screen 2004 “XXX: 30 Porn Star Portraits” book in America. The first film was also made into Tests, made in the ’60s. The subjects simply (Bullfinch), exhibition and HBO film, he a book (Atria) featuring Greenfield-Sanders’ stood in front of a tripod-mounted camera “My idea was to take my unique style—the direct portrait—and bring it to life in film. In a way it’s radical filmmaking because there are no cutaways.” as he recorded them. “I like the fact that Goya’s paintings “La Maja Vestida” and “La The first people he photographed, friends there was almost no direction, just a person Maja Desnuda.” “My work has always been of his famous father-in-law, Abstract being himself,” says Greenfield-Sanders. “I filled with historical art references.” Expressionist Joop Sanders, included Willem tried that early on in my portraiture. I Greenfield-Sanders made small films de Kooning and Larry Rivers. Next Greenfield- wanted to be as unobtrusive as possible.” while at Columbia, which helped him gain Sanders turned his lens on rising art stars of entrée to graduate school at the American the ’80s, like Julian Schnabel and Robert FINE ART INSTRUCTION Film Institute. Once there, he volunteered to Mapplethorpe. He acquired a reputation for No doubt Greenfield-Sanders’ DNA carries a photograph the guest lecturers, using 35mm his odd large camera and straightforward double helix of filmmaking and photographic and medium-format cameras. He didn’t really style. Soon commercial work paved the way talent, which remarkably, he didn’t discover until know what he was doing, and his subjects to an agent, gallery and museum shows, and graduate school. After high school in Miami, forthrightly told him so, some of them harshly, his first film, the 1999 Grammy Award- Greenfield-Sanders got his undergraduate especially Bette Davis. “Alfred Hitchcock, Bette winning Lou Reed: Rock & Roll Heart. degree in art history at Columbia University. Davis and Ingmar Bergman all corrected Then in 2004, the unthinkable happened. “I wanted to be a filmmaker, but my guid- me,” he says. “By the end of my time making Kodak quit making black-and-white ance counselor wanted me to have a proper films, I had fallen in love with portraiture.” Ektapan film. “All those years of buying film, undergraduate education first. He was The purchase of an 11x14 camera just I never imagined that the tools I used to right,” he says. “As an artist, having an art before he left Los Angeles to live in New York make my iconic images would one day be history background is invaluable. My work changed his life, he says. “I went from shooting gone. Technology has changed my choices.” is an homage to Rembrandt, and my porn rolls of film to literally shooting one or two But the timing was right; he wanted to series is a direct steal from Goya,” referring sheets of film, because I couldn’t afford it. shoot the “XXX” series in color. He switched to his double portraits of porn stars, whom Every frame had to count. I had a small studio to an 8x10 Deardorff camera and, sources he photographed clothed and nude à la and invited people I knew to sit for me.” tell him, he’ll be able to get materials for it in film. In a way it’s radical filmmaking because there are no cutaways.” for another 10 years. “It’s the end of an era. work. “You can’t do with digital what I do but I’m not locked into it. It’s just the way I But, you know, if I hadn’t been a large- on 8x10, but I don’t think it will be long do what I do.” When the time comes, he format photographer I would be shooting until you will be able to shoot a digital file as says, “I’ll figure out another way to do it.” I everything digitally now.