Airborne: The New Dance Photography of Lois Greenfield (Paperback)

~ (Author), William Ewing (Preface), Daniel Girardin (Afterword)
Key Phrases: dance photography, dance company, Eliot Feld, Ashley Roland, Flipper Hope (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Lois Greenfield is uniquely adept at capturing the vibrancy and joy of dance. Part choreographer, part photographer, she does more than seize dancers in motion in her images--they seem to define the essence of movement itself. In this book, she has categorized her dancers as either earthbound or airborne, and it is hard to decide which images are more exhilarating. In the first set, a shot of a dancer taken the moment her toes hit the ground, with her body and filmy skirt still very much aloft, captures the fleeting experience of the transition. A dancer changes form beneath her stretchy curtain of a costume, seemingly grappling with gravity itself. Another is earthbound as she leaps up with an elongated tights leg pinned to the ground and anchoring her from below. Groups of dancers commingle, Pilobolus-style, and reshape the scope of human form. In the air, Greenfield's subjects fly, merge, and collide in a symphony of shapes that she somehow, unbelievably, captures on film.

All of the nearly 100 black-and-white photos in the book were shot in a studio with vacant backdrops so that the images sail forth unimpeded by background distractions. Greenfield offers short notes on many of the pictures that include information about the dancer as well as fascinating notes on how she achieved the image. Of one shot of three dancers seemingly pinned over each other and stuck like magnets to the same wall, she writes: "The dancers are running sequentially headlong into the wall. The first person is held up by the pressure of the second body. The third guy has to grab the top of the wall across the width of the two bodies. The moment I shot is when the outside man, Ned, just lets go from the wall."

Airborne is a breathtaking treat for lovers and dance and photography alike.

Review

"Lois Greenfield has been too busy making spectacular studio action photographs of dancers to be represented by only one collection, her best selling 'Breaking Bounds.' It was only a matter of time before her publisher, Chronicle Books, issued 'Airborne: The New Dance Photography of Lois Greenfield.' As usual, the pages are filled with dancers her trusty Hasselblad had caught breathtakingly in midpose and midair, but now more ingenious use is made of props, materials, or objects. (In one shot, Sham Moser is under a shower of flour and sugar.) IN this 1997 study of a cube and Ashley Roland (in a mesh unitard), Greenfield wanted to 'make it seem as though an invisible force had blown' them apart. Looks as though she succeeded." -- Dance

"We've all seen photos of dancers caught in midleap. But there's only one photographer who captures the dazzling freedom of trained bodies tumbling, darting or falling through space to form stylized silhouettes. 'Airborne: The New Dance Photography of Lois Greenfield' offers a generous sampler of these black-and-white images, best known from advertisements for a brand of expensive watches. Brief essays by the director and curator of the Musee de l'Elysee in Switzerland, explain how Greenfield fits into the history of photography and the photographer adds brief commentaries about her work with the dancers." -- LA Times --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (July 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811821552
• ISBN-13: 978-0811821551
• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 10.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #609,969 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful no-trick photos that seem to defy gravity, April 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Airborne: The New Dance Photography of Lois Greenfield (Hardcover)

Wonderful book. None of the photographs are tricked -- that is, all are usual perspectives, normal orientation (what looks like the floor at first glance really is), no strings, no unseen bars or plates, no studio retouching of former. (See LG's preface.) Truly amazing work.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A unique perspective of dance photography., October 28, 1998

By A Customer

This book is a sequel to the book BREAKING BOUNDS.The trick photography is incredible! Some of the photos are tasteful nudes that captivate you with their artistry. If a picture is worth a thousand words... this book is worth a couple million!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fantastic , highly energised photographs & photography, September 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Airborne: The New Dance Photography of Lois Greenfield (Hardcover)

I think the line above says everything.. you will not regret buying this book.