In the previous post, we explored a painting of an acrobat being rediscovered. Let's continue with a look at circus photographs by the late Mary Ellen Mark.
Mary Ellen Mark (1940-2015) was an American photographer known for her photojournalism, documentary photography, and portraiture. Her photo-essays and portraits appeared in publications such as LIFE, The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, and Vanity Fair.
In the 1970s, Mark visited small circuses in India and took some images, but she returned in the late 1980s and early 1990s for a broader project on the same topic.
Traveling by plane, train, and taxi across India, she photographed eighteen different circuses, working in tiny villages and large cities. She documented both large circuses with many wild animals and up to four hundred staff members, and small ones with just a pony, a monkey, an elephant, and ten people. Mark's photographs didn't show the performers in action but rather captured them in their daily lives, as they trained or rested.
"When I photographed the circuses in India, all of my senses were keenly alerted," she wrote in the volume "Indian Circus".
"I have such strong memories of the wonderful sounds, often Western popular music played on a worn saxophone and old drums, interspersed with lion roars and bells announcing acts. I think about the pungent smell of tiger urine and the exotic perfume of burning incense tinged with jasmine floating from every tent's tiny homemade temple shrine. I also recall extraordinary conversations, the laughter of the child performers, and the shouts of fighting clowns."
Some of the conversations Mark had with animal trainers, clowns and acrobats (many of them children, especially girls, often beaten by their families and contracted by their parents to circuses) were included in the book. Mark collected harrowing stories, such as young acrobats witnessing other performers dying. One trapeze artist explained, "If I fall from the swing, death will happen. That's how I got this job thirty years ago. The girl fell and died." Pinky, the most talented contortionist (Pinky describes herself as a "plastic lady", a definition for contortionist), told Mark that no one hit her at the circus, but she was scared of marriage. "I'm not going to get married," she revealed Mark. "I don't want children. I'm scared of marriage. He'll beat me. He'll hold my head and pull it. He'll get drunk. He'll abuse me."
Degas offered an interesting perspective of Miss La La swinging from the ceiling of Cirque Fernando. In much the same way Mark often presented intriguing perspectives: for example, she captured an image of two acrobats practicing at Bharat Circus, Bulandshahar, 1989, positioned diagonally on the left side of the image in front of the circus tent. Another image shows Pinky on the left side and two other performers on the right, suggesting a wider scene.
"Photographing the Indian circus was one of the most beautiful, joyous, and special times of my career," Mark stated in the volume dedicated to these images. "I was allowed to document a magic fantasy that was, at the same time, all so real. It was full of ironies, often humorous and sometimes sad, beautiful and ugly, loving and at times cruel, but always human. The Indian circus is a metaphor for everything that has always fascinated me visually."
Next year marks the 10th anniversary of Mary Ellen Mark's death. Let's hope she will be celebrated with an exhibition that will allow new audiences to rediscover her ouvre and in particular her circus images taken in India, but in Mexico as well.
One last note for fashion designers: when it comes to fashion inspirations, there's plenty to be drawn from the poses of Mary Ellen Mark's performers. Jewelry designers, in particular, might find the theme intriguing as the silhouettes and movements of acrobats and contortionists can be transformed into captivating jewelry pieces. For further inspiration along these lines, consider looking at Gene Moore's circus figurines for Tiffany's.
Image credits for this post
Mary Ellen Mark, Acrobats Rehearsing Their Act at Great Golden Circus, Ahmedabad, 1989
Mary Ellen Mark, Circus Acrobat Rehearsing, Bombay, India, 1974
Mary Ellen Mark, Pinky, Shiva Ji, and Laxmi, Great Royal Circus, Junagadh, 1990
Mary Ellen Mark, Acrobats Practicing, Bharat Circus, Bulandshahar, 1989
Mary Ellen Mark, Contortionist with Sweety the Puppy, Raj Kamal Circus, Upleta, 1989
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