20 years photographing Circus
In high school I met Jack. Jack’s family owns the last remaining total Circus building in the UK, The Hippodrome Circus in Great Yarmouth. Jack quickly became one of my closest friends and a group of us spent our adolescent years backstage, some working as a part of the production, some just along for the ride.
At 16 when I first picked up a camera the Hippodrome was my immediate muse. I lacked the confidence to ask the artists for portraits, so I made still life observations of the building’s interior. Piles of discarded spinning plates and the dusty loft space above the sloped ceilings of the auditorium were among the photographs on the first roll of film I ever shot.
It’s been 20 years and, despite some breaks, I’ve always come back to photographing circuses. Around the UK, in the US and regularly at the famous circus festival in Monte Carlo.
The body of work has ended up taking two basic forms — Firstly, posed portraits from formal sittings, typically in colour and lit with strobe (above). Usually I photograph my subjects in full makeup and costume, but devoid of any character. Secondly, reportage photography shot during performances (below). This is usually shot backstage and is mostly presented in black and white.
