“The circus is a tiny closed off arena of forgetfulness. For a space it enables us to lose ourselves, to dissolve in wonder and bliss, to be transported by mystery.”

-Henry Miller, The Smile at the Foot of the Ladder

 

With my night photography, I create voyeuristic experiences that result in the feeling of peering into a world where one is not supposed to be. By using long exposures and dramatic depth-of-field, these color photographs are rarely about a particular object; rather, they focus on the absence of people in the space. It is this relationship that creates the subject matter of the piece.

 

Through my process, my photographs communicate a hazy, ghostly, lonely, and surreal world. Although the literal subject matter should inform the viewer to keep out, there is a dreamy, fairy-tale like quality that invites the viewer to step into a somewhat surreal world.  "Under a Circus Sky” is a series of large scale intensely colored traditional c-prints shot in the quiet moments in and around old-fashioned one-ring circus tents. Between performances, I go inside the big top, photographing the glittery detritus and empty seats after the circus. As the lights come up in the tent, I disappear backstage, behind the tent, into the performers' shadows, amongst the props and mobile homes. I capture what is eclipsed by the spectacle-- trailers where performers live, the machinery and heavy cables needed to erect and support the tent, the ropes and rigging gear for each apparatus-- the stillness and anticipation behind the spectacle. I look behind the curtain into a kind of nomadic domestic life that is dying but not yet gone.

 

In shooting the circus tent without the performance, I emphasize the illusion that the tent adds to the experience. Each aspect of the edifice seems designed to throw off your sense of normalcy. Entering a temporary fabric building thrown up on an empty lot, you are protected from the elements but still feel surrounded by them. The floor is asphalt or dirt, and the deep blue ceiling mimics the night sky. The ephemeral, illusory essence of the circus itself emanates from the building that houses it. Devoid of the performers and spectators who give the circus its usual energy, my images evoke an unnatural sense of silence, like a nomadic ghost town.