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So the proverbial “wake-up” call came, “Good morning, Mr. Greenberg, it’s 7 am here at the Mortality Suites, and by the way, you had cancer.” The days of saying, “It won’t happen to me,” or “When I get older, I will do this or that, or teach, or mentor” are over. I am older and a cancer survivor with a bone marrow transplant. This was the perfect time to leverage my archive. In December 1985, I was chosen by Stern Magazine (Germany’s LIFE equivalent) to photograph Andy Warhol at The Factory in New York, where a German writer accompanied me. Days prior to the shoot I contemplated what I wanted to do with Andy and hoped he would cooperate. I wanted to create a cover shot and a strong shot for an interior spread that would personify Andy Warhol. When we met, I gave him a black marker and white board with the instruction to write “Portrait” on the board. He was intrigued by the idea and actively participated. On my last piece of white board, he finally approved of his writing and I began to shoot. I didn’t take the usual dozens of shots. It was a busy atmosphere and there were a few members of his old gang present. I took candid shots of those moments. It was a satisfying and successful shoot. (To see more images, please visit my website at: www.markgreenbergphotography.com.) For the past 36 years, I’ve had a fairly amazing career in photography. I’ve been around the world, lived and hunted with Yanomami Indians in the Amazon
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BC The Magazine // November/December 2011