RE LOG Fall 2017

FALL 2017 Ransom Everglades LOG 9 “It was a spark. I started thinking about African-American talent in general, how that talent doesn’t always get exposed.” – Greenfield-Sanders must get a decent education first,” he recalled Bowden telling him. “Otherwise, you will have nothing to say as a filmmaker.” That conversation with Bowden was the first in a series of profoundly meaningful interactions with various mentors that would shape Greenfield-Sanders’ career and life. A career forged on a chance meeting, a surprise documentary After earning his bachelor’s degree at Columbia, Greenfield-Sanders traveled to Los Angeles for graduate studies at the American Film Institute. As a newcomer to the prestigious school in Beverly Hills, he got stuck with a gig none of the other aspiring filmmakers wanted: photographing visiting dignitaries for the school’s archive. A run-of-the-mill photo shoot with film legend Bette Davis turned into an unexpect- edly meaningful relationship when Davis criticized Greenfield-Sanders’ photographic technique, then offered to teach him the intri- cacies of photography if he would only drive her around Hollywood for a week. By the end of a week clouded with cigarette smoke, saturated with Bloody Marys and filled with riveting commentary on light and angles and images, Greenfield-Sanders decided he had found his niche: He would pursue portrai- ture. Unlike filmmaking, which nearly always involved collaboration, shooting portraits could be highly individual. He and his wife – who had earned a law degree from UCLA – returned to New York in a 1954 Ford Customline, towing a U-Haul, and bought an old rectory in the East Village. He started shooting large-format photo- graphs. He began by asking artist friends to sit for him, but gradually drew praise for his evocative works, and his client list expanded rapidly. He recorded portraits of seven U.S. presidents and hundreds of celebrities including Bill Murray, Beyoncé, Ellen Degeneres, Steven Spielberg, Serena Williams and others. As his career in portraiture took off, happenstance once again caused Greenfield- Sanders’ career to pivot. A series of photo shoots with rock star Lou Reed morphed into a documentary almost by chance. Greenfield- Sanders persuaded Reed to allow him to Greenfield-Sanders with Toni Morrison