The British Circus 1970-1996

​

The images in this series, while they incidentally chronicle the shifting and dwindling fortunes of the circus in Great Britain and Ireland over the past twenty-five years,  are an attempt to capture the poignancy of the unique life of the circus performer.  Who else any longer carries with him , day in and day out , his home and family, his colleages and workplace - in short, his entire world?       

  Bruce Bernard - 1989                                          

              "Early in 1971, I began begging lifts and sleeping rough in travels that took me all over Great Britain to visit circuses. I bedded down in fields and under wagons and sometimes even in them. 

" I was immediately struck by the aesthetic, the elaborate display and the backstage ordinariness. It was in this composition and its balance that I hoped to reveal something of the 'heart' of my subjects.

  Peter Lavery - 1989

.