Greenfield-Sanders was initially interested in filmmaking, pursuing a degree at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles, where he also took portraits for the school's archive of visiting directors, actors and film stars. "Because of AFI, I got tips from celebrities as well as access to them," he says. Alfred Hitchcock once remarked, "Young man, your lights are all wrong," while Bette Davis criticized him harshly for "shooting from below", according to a Photofocus.com article. Admitting to Davis that he was eager to learn more about portraiture, she invited him to drive her around Hollywood for a week in exchange for her thoughts on photography. Greenfield-Sanders credits Davis with alerting him to the work of George Hurrell and the art of large-format cameras.[14]
Greenfield-Sanders makes large-format portraiture. He began his career in 1978 using a vintage 1905 Fulmer & Schwing view camera with 11"x14" Ektapan black and white film. He made contact prints from the large-format negatives. Today, with that film discontinued, he shoots with a 1930s Deardorff studio camera on 8"x10" Kodak color negative. He shoots only a handful of frames.[14]
Greenfield-Sanders exhibited "Thinking XXX", a series of clothed and nude portraits of porn stars, at the Mary Boone Gallery from October 30 to December 18, 2004.[24] During the photo shoots for the exhibition, he directed an HBO documentary, also called Thinking XXX, about the adult stars. His son-in-law Sebastian Blanck worked with him on Thinking XXX as a composer.[25] On October 15, 2004, Greenfield-Sanders was profiled on 60 Minutes. About the XXX project, art critic David Rimanelli in Artforum stated: "Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, the tremendously successful photographer of presidents, Supreme Court justices, movie and music stars, famous writers, and the full panoply of artists, dealers, and critics who constitute the art world, has turned his large-format 8 x 10 Deardorff camera on the parallel universe of pornographic stardom."[26]
Starting in 2008, Greenfield-Sanders directed and produced The Black List, a series of three documentary films. "Volume 1" premiered at The Sundance Film Festival.[27] All three films aired on HBO. Portraits taken by Greenfield-Sanders for the project were first exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in 2008, then at Brooklyn Museum,[28] the Hartford Atheneum, and the Paley Center in New York City and Los Angeles.[29] From October 27, 2011, to April 22, 2012, all 50 images from the series were shown at The National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.[27]The Black List won an NAACP Image Award for Best Documentary.
In 2010 and 2011, Greenfield-Sanders directed and produced The Latino List: Volumes 1 & 2. Both films aired on HBO. His portraits from the series were exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum of Art and the High Museum in Atlanta. In 2012, he completed another film, About Face: Supermodels Then and Now, an examination of beauty through the eyes and lives of supermodels from the 1950s to the 1980s. This documentary premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and aired on HBO on July 30, 2012.[30] He also directed and produced The Out List, which aired on HBO on June 27, 2013, just as United States v. Windsor was decided. Edith Windsor attended the HBO premiere event in New York.
On September 23, 2014, Greenfield-Sanders aired, on PBS' American Masters series, The Boomer List, which starred well-known persons representing each of the baby boomer years of 1946–1964. His portraits of the 19 subjects were exhibited at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. On September 25, 2015, his film The Women's List aired on PBS' American Master series. His portraits of subjects from the documentary along with 35 other images of women, from his archive, were exhibited through December 31, 2015, at the Hearst Tower Alexey Brodovitch Gallery.
In 2016, Greenfield-Sanders directed and produced The Trans List. Trans journalist and author, Janet Mock, conducted the interviews. The film received grants from The Ford Foundation, The Arcus Foundation and The Annenberg Foundation. Among the eleven subjects were Caitlyn Jenner and Laverne Cox. It aired December 5, 2016, on HBO. In addition to the documentary, Greenfield-Sanders photographed 29 other trans subjects to include in his "list" survey exhibition at the Annenberg Space for Photography. This exhibition was the first time that all 151 portraits from the Black, Latino, Out, Women's and Trans 'list' projects were presented together. On December 4, 2016, Greenfield-Sanders was profiled on CBS Sunday Morning by Serena Altschul.
After Andy: Soho in the Eighties. Schwartz City, Melbourne, 1996. Text by Paul Taylor, portraits by Greenfield-Sanders.
Art World. Fotofolio, 1999. Essays by Wayne Koestenbaum, Robert Pincus-Witten, and Mark Strand.
Timothy Greenfield-Sanders. Alberico Cetti Serbelloni, 2001. Introduction by Francesco Clemente, curated by Demetrio Paparoni. In English and Italian.
XXX: 30 Porn-Star Portraits. Bulfinch, 2004. Introduction by Gore Vidal.
Face to Face, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders Selected Portraits 1977-2005. Skira, 2005. Edited by Demetrio Paparoni and Gianni Mercurio.
Look: Portraits Backstage at Olympus Fashion Week. Powerhouse, 2006.
The Black List. Atria, 2008. Introduction by Elvis Mitchell, portraits by Greenfield-Sanders.
The Black List 50. National Portrait Gallery; LCP, 2011. Portraits by Greenfield-Sanders.
The Latino List. LCP, 2011. Introduction by Maria Hinojosa, portraits by Greenfield-Sanders.
The Out List. LCP, 2013. Sam McConnell. Portraits by Greenfield-Sanders.
The Boomer List. LCP, 2015. Portraits by Greenfield-Sanders. Original Book of the Year, Independent Publisher Book Award 2015, SNAP Excel Award 20.[citation needed]
The Trans List. Janet Mock, 2016. Portraits by Greenfield-Sanders, Annenberg Space for Photography.
Catalogues
American Art of the 80's. Electra. Curated by Gabriella Belli and Jerry Saltz, Trento, Palazzo dele Albere, 1991/92 Museo d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto.
Dancers On A Plane: John Cage, Merce Cunningham and Jasper Johns. Portraits by Greenfield-Sanders, essays Susan Sontag, Richard Francis, Mark Rosenthal, Anne Seymour, David Sylvester, and David Vaughan. Thames and Hudson, Anthony d'Offay Gallery London.[31]
The Last Decade. American Artists of the 80's curated by Collins & Milazzo, essays by Robert Pincus-Witten and Collins and Milazzo photographic portraits of the artists by Greenfield-Sanders. New York: Tony Shafrazi Gallery, 1990.
Movie Stars. Skira; Museo Carlo Bilotti, Rome, Italy. Essays: Darren Aronofsky & Rachel Weisz, Alec Baldwin Gianni Mercurio, Demetrio Paparoni, Robert Rosenblum, introductions by Silvio Di Francia and Walter Veltroni.[32]
Timothy Greenfield-Sanders. Marimura Art Museum, Tokyo. Curated by Taro Chiezo, text by Robert Pincus-Witten, 1990.
Timothy Greenfield-Sanders Selected Portraits 1985-1995. Kunst-Station Sankt Peter, Koln, 1996.
Timothy Greenfield-Sanders. Emilio Mazzoli Editore. Introduction by Achille Bonito Oliva.
Faces and Names. Gianni Mercurio. Italian Exhibition catalogue.
The Ninth Street Show. 1987. Lumiere, Toronto, Canada. Hand printed by Michael Torosian. Text by Robert Pincus-Witten. Edition of 150 copies. Published in 1987 in celebration of 35th anniversary of Leo Castelli Gallery.[32]
Awards
Grammy Award, 1999, Lou Reed: Rock and Roll Heart.[33]
2013: The Out List, Hiram Butler Gallery, Houston, TX,[76]
2014–15: The Boomer List, The Newseum, Washington, D.C.,[77]
2015: The Women's List, Hearst Tower, New York, NY, 09/21/2015-12/31/15[78]
2016: The Boomer List, Washington Pavilion Visual Arts Center – Sioux Falls, SD,[77]
2016: The Women's List, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Long Island City, New York, NY[79]
2016–17: Identity: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, The List Portraits, Annenberg Space for Photography, LA, CA,[80]
2017–18: The Boomer List, North Carolina Museum of History – Raleigh, NC,[77]
2017: The Boomer List, Brattleboro Museum – Brattleboro, VT,[77]
2017: The Boomer List, Florida Museum of Photographic Arts – Tampa, FL,[77]
2017: The Boomer List, Photographic Center Northwest – Seattle, WA,[77]
2017: The Trans List, Wetterling Gallery, Sweden, 2017[81]
2018: 50 Women, Southern Vermont Arts Center, Manchester, VT.[82]
2018–19: The Latino List, International Museum of Art & Science, McAllen, TX[83]
2018: The Trans List, The Dorsky Museum, New Paltz, NY,[84]
2018: The Boomer List, The Haggin Museum – Stockton, CA[85]
2018: The Boomer List, Morris Museum – Morristown, NJ,[86]
2018: "The Boomer List" Springfield Museum of Art – Springfield, OH[87]
2018: The Boomer List, The Naper Settlement, Naperville, IL[88]
2019: The Boomer List, Museum of the Albemarle – Elizabeth City, NC,[89]
2021: The Boomer List, Scarfone/Hartley Gallery at the University of Tampa – Tampa, Fl.,[90]
Personal life
He is married to lawyer Karin Greenfield-Sanders (née Sanders). They have two children: painter Isca Greenfield-Sanders and filmmaker, Liliana Greenfield-Sanders.[91]
^correspondent, Cherise Madigan, Journal (May 31, 2018). "A community heritage". Manchester Journal. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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