Ahh, the beauty of Photoshop - the ability to create a visual that would otherwise be impossible to capture in real life. Silhouette a person standing in a living room and ten minutes later you can convincingly have them walking on water. To look at Lois Greenfield’s photography one might assume that her images are nothing more than Photoshop collages. Those dancers, so precisely organized, so contrary to the laws of gravity, must be Photoshoped together. Aren’t they?

The truth is, the man who looks like he’s about to fall flat on his face is. There is no room in Lois Greenfield’s photography for anything less than pure reality, thus Photoshop is practically a non-issue in her unassuming studio. Instead, there is only the real-life acrobatics of some of dance’s most talented participants, performing moves for the camera that they would otherwise never do on a stage. To watch it happen live causes even the bystanders to cringe slightly, as their natural instinct comes alive. One can only imagine what goes on in the dancer’s minds in that split second before impact.

Even more remarkable, however, is what’s going on in Lois Greenfield’s mind during those fleeting moments. With a vision and sense of style unique unto herself, Lois’s eyes seem to focus in ways that the scientific world would argue is not humanly impossible. Her camera snaps its shot in 1/200th of a second, with the flash set to 1/2000th of a second, to catch one amazing moment in time that nobody would ever be capable of seeing with the naked eye. Nobody, that is, except Lois.

There’s more to it than that single moment, however. To Lois, that moment represents the journey. While most of the world is infatuated with the destination – the final pose, the manufactured smile, the end result – Lois finds beauty in the steps that fall between the beginning and the end. She seeks to capture the frames of life that naturally transpire before the final goal is reached, the frames that are invisible to the naked eye, either because they happen to fast, or, unfortunately, because so many people just don’t take the time to appreciate them.

Lois’s own journey began in the early 1970’s as a photo-journalist for the Village Voice (an alternative New York City newspaper). Being an edgy paper known for being ‘out of the box,’ the Voice gave Lois the opportunity to be different than the typical photo-journalist, and in 1982, when she photographed David Parsons and Daniel Ezralow, the seed for her particular brand of art was planted. Their "incredible athleticism and kamikaze spirit" is what inspired her to take dance photography a step further, giving birth to a new way of viewing reality. As her exposure grew, so did the list of well-known dancers that wanted to work with her - an interesting fact, considering that one session with Lois is almost sure to produce numerous bruises and plenty of sore muscles. But the pain has proven worthwhile considering what Lois offers in return.

According to Lois, the real draw for the dancers is that she "enables them to capture spectacular moments that are not performable on stage, moments where they jump and collapse." Lois goes on to explain, "I started out shooting regular dance photography. People would look at one of my pictures of Baryshnikov in a spectacular leap ten feet off the ground and say, ‘What a great photograph!’ but I knew it wasn’t; it was merely a great dance moment competently captured. So I decided to be more exploratory."

This exploration has made her one of the best-known photographers today. Along with her associate Jack Deaso, Lois has built a thriving studio centered around her vision. You may not know her name but chances are you’ve seen her work. Her portfolio reads like a Who’s Who of advertising giants, including Raymond Weil, Pepsi, Disney, IBM and Capezio (see First Impressions sidebar). Surprisingly though, even with all of the marquee names that she has done work for, Lois chooses not to include finished advertisements in her portfolio. "Even though I’m not the new kid on the block," Lois explains, "people still like to feel as though they are discovering me." Lois also wants her photography to be judged on the photography itself and not on the art direction.

Why is Lois such a draw to marketing directors? In a visually saturated world, marketing directors are on a constant look out for anything that will capture their market and make their audience take notice. Lois’ work forces the person to pause for a moment and question "How is that possible?" It’s this pause that continues to keep marketers lined up outside her studio, anxious to take advantage of her particular niche.

Unfortunately today, the question "how is that possible?" is all to easily answered: Photoshop. Lois concedes that it gets increasingly difficult to convince people that her work is reality and not retouched. In fact, there are no suspensions, no hidden supports and no dancers lying on the floor, which people often assume is how the dancers are actually shot.

From the perspective of the Photoshop user, the question becomes can these images be as easily created on the computer instead of in the studio? From a technical standpoint, yes, some can. Shooting individual dancers and collaging them together could account for some of her work. But that’s strictly a technical answer. Realistically, the interaction of the dancers playing off one another, combined with Lois’ vision is what creates the uniqueness which is her photography. And Photoshop alone could never capture that.

What that uniqueness is, exactly, is hard to pinpoint. It’s the impossibility of the image, dancers literally suspended in air. It’s the idea that the dancers enter the shot from bizarre directions, making the viewer question where the dancer came from and how they will land. It’s the square frame that acts as a boundary for her subjects. It’s the look of serenity on the faces of dancers who are fully aware that in just another second, they’re going to bash their bodies against a cold, hard floor. It’s the idea of capturing the journey rather than the destination or the perfect pose. Lois’ focus encompasses all of the above.

After over three decades of traditional photography, Lois has broadened her scope and embraced digital as a means of capturing her vision. "You would expect," she says, "that shooting with a digital camera would make each session shorter, because we have immediate gratification of the image. But actually, I’ve found that the opposite is true. Because I can shoot so much more quickly, and there’s no need to change film, we tend to shoot a lot more."

This typically equates into harder work for the dancers. More importantly, however, the immediacy of digital photography has allowed Lois to direct the dancer’s expression with a higher amount of precision. "A dancer who is not used to working with me focuses on the perfection of the move itself - what is happening with their arms and legs. When they see the digital screen, and note their own tense expression, they realize that they need to relax more. That’s how we capture the look of serenity on their faces."

Of course, switching to digital has had its drawbacks, most notably on the output side of things. Although color prints have proven successful, it wasn’t until very recently that Lois’ black-and-white prints were delivered satisfactorily. "The problem isn’t with the color," explains Henry Jesionka, Lois’ digital consultant, "the problem is with the black-and-whites, especially the black-and-whites that have a heavy amount of grey. Many of the printers use fluorescent ink, and as we tried to get to an equal amount of red, green and blue, we were getting black-and-white prints with a slight green tint." Henry goes on to explain that the solution came as they began to outsource. "Now, since we’ve been outsourcing the digital output, and calibrating our own computers with those of our vendors, we’ve been able to see great black-and-white prints, and at a minimal cost."

Even Photoshop, although never used in the placement of the dancers, has found a small place in her work. "Photoshop has allowed us to move outside of the square box, and create horizontal images that bleed to the edge of the page."

Today Lois is moving in a couple different directions. One being the work she is known for and the other being a focus on Bodyscapes. Her focus here is not movement but rather the mystery of the human shape and form. "The body," Lois explains, "becomes the fabric." This is yet again one of the ways Lois has learned to evolve her work and re-invent herself as a relevant ground-breaking artist. Is this her final stop? As her work proves, there is far more beauty in the journey than there is in the destination.

First Impressions
Walking into Lois Greenfield’s studio is under-whelming to say the least. After admiring her work for years, I expected this fancy, elaborate studio that would be cluttered with framed photos of her most spectacular work. I suppose I expected the same traits in Lois herself. Most photographers I’ve met have had a holier-than-thou attitude and were incredibly difficult to work with. What I encountered instead was a modest studio with a large, white, seamless wall and a few posters hung haphazardly. Lois herself was one of the most likeable people I’ve met in my professional career.