I have always been fascinated by circus. I especially love reading abut the lives of the circus performers who travelled with the circus in the late 1800's through the end of the 1960's. The circus was often a haven for the outcasts, the freaks and the forgotten and the life of the performers was not an easy one. Hard, long and repetitive work with months on the road in cramped and dirty surroundings. These images of Austin by photographer Daniel Peebles look like they may have been shot in the 20's or 30's and beautifully capture the tone feel of the time and the life of a circus performer.
'I was told that Daniel was looking to photograph performers so I got a hold of him to see what exactly he was looking fo. The day of the shoot was pretty fun. We set up shop in a warehouse where I rig my hoop and chains to practice. We went through a lot of poses shooting digitally and eventually found a pose we wanted to shoot on film. While we were shooting on film I had to hold the pose for a few minutes which was a bit challenging be because I was bearing a lot of weight by the back of my heel, but it was no big deal, I tend to tear myself up a lot doing circus. A lot of bruises, burns, and scrapes. Daniel is a lot of fun to work with, really laid back. I hope I get the chance to work with him again soon. I think my favorite modeling moment so far has been seeing myself hanging in a gallery for a show in which Daniel Peebles was participating.'
