The brief for this
assignment was to write a 1000 word essay on a chosen image which could be
anything from famous art photography to a family snapshot. I had a few images
in mind; Eggleston’s woman on a swing had always been a favourite, McCurry’s
Afghan girl drew me in with her intense green eyes and I was rather drawn to an
old photograph of my mother holding a child’s potty on a caravan site in the
late sixties. All of these images initially struck me because of their use of
colour. It is often one of the first things that I am drawn to, so I was quite
surprised that my final choice turned out to be a black & white image.
As I flicked through Magnum’s ‘A Year in Photography’, an image from Bruce Davidson's Palisades Circus collection struck me; I knew instantly that this was the image I would use. There is a great sadness to the image which, drew me in and made me want to look further. The denotative element to the image is a 1950s circus dwarf, smoking a cigarette outside the circus tent. The sparseness of the grounds would imply that the image was shot after the show when the crowds had left.
What initially struck me
was the juxtaposition of the man, dressed as a clown, an entertainer against
the barren, grimy setting. The use of colour, or lack of it greatly enhances
the desolate feeling of the empty showground, vibrant hues of the clown’s
makeup and circus tent becoming a bleak monochrome. A lone lorry and the circus
tent balance the background, triangulating with the main subject in the
foreground; the lines of the guy ropes leading towards his painted face. The
line continues towards the bottom corner of the shot in the form of a half
smoked cigarette. Far from the buzzing crowds expected around a circus tent,
two dark figures can be made out in the distance; the day is drab, wet and
dreary.
The juxtaposition goes
further; signifiers of happiness, the clown’s painted smile and raised eyebrows
cover a downturned mouth and a tired, sunken brow. A child’s entertainer
drawing on his half smoked cigarette shows the contrast between his real life
and that which he portrays when the circus is alive. The clown’s other
hand holds a bunch of wilted flowers, giving a connotation of sadness and
neglect apparent throughout the image. The clown is not looking towards the camera;
he appears deep in thought and oblivious to the photographer.
The image was taken at a circus in Palisades, New Jersey in 1958, a time when ‘circus dwarfs’ had been big business. Agents could make a very comfortable living recruiting the myriad of people classed as freaks at the time, little people being a firm favourite of many. This series shows an era close to its end as circus life gives way to more modern forms of entertainment such as television.
"I
was chronicling the end of something, the last tent shows. Television put paid
to the era of the circus performer and you can feel that sense of sadness, of a
time passing into history, in the photographs."
Davidson sees his subject’s
sadness as being due to the circus era coming to a close; I wonder if it goes
deeper, the loss of a career he never wanted but had no choice.
Davidson has photographed
the clown from above with a wide angled lens giving him a lost, childlike
quality, enhanced by the vast, empty space behind. Itis a realistic view as
seen from the perspective of most adults, however a lower perspective would
have given a more powerful impression of the subject. This downward perspective
adds a vulnerability to the image quite reflective of the performer’s position
in the world. Seen as freaks, such people had difficulty finding work and many
had no option but to enter the world of entertainment. The pay was little
compensation to the humiliation and patronisation endured on a daily basis.
Bruce Davidson met his subject, Jimmy Armstrong while photographing three very different circuses in the 1950s.
'I saw
the dwarf standing outside the circus tent in the mist of a cold spring
afternoon. His distorted torso, normal-sized head and stunted legs both
attracted and repelled me. He stood before my camera sad and silent.’
(Telegraph)
Although Davidson used a
torso shot, omitting Armstrong’s ‘stunted legs’, I feel that the downward
perspective was chosen intentionally to highlight the man’s size. Davidson’s
initial feelings towards Armstrong are typical of the time; people who differed
from the perceived norm were often hidden away and only seen in arenas such as
the circus. In today’s society, a career in entertainment would be an active
choice for a talented actor or musician with restricted growth; in 1950s
America, it was often the only way to make a living.
Introduced by Diane Arbus into photographing the ‘screwball aspect of the world’ Davidson produced several works throughout his career in which he immersed himself into communities, not normally welcoming of outsiders.
He spent months building
relationships and and photographing these communities in a bid, as he
describes, to ‘understand his own place in the world’. (Telegraph)
Although his images tell a
story, this is not what Davidson is looking for when creating his work. His
intention is to capture a mood, which is sustained in the emerging series; his
relationship with the subject often brings out a story; if anything, the story
is being told to him. Armstrong’s story was a reflection of the ‘strange
loneliness’ apparent in the world of the travelling circus. During his time
with Armstrong, Davidson captured many moments that enhanced the mood of my
chosen image; the photograph below shows the clown’s loneliness as a group at a
nearby table mocks him. Interestingly, sadness is again signified with a bunch
of drab looking flowers.
Although the mood is
consistent, I feel that the way this image is shot shows that Davidson is
beginning to see Armstrong as person, rather than a subject. The image is shot
from a lower perspective, which along with the lack of makeup and costume
denotes an average adult eating in a cafe; nothing about his size has been
exaggerated, in fact it has been quite played down. The group mocking Armstrong
are now shown to be the freaks, clearly lacking humanity towards a person of
which the photographer has grown quite fond.
The melancholy mood of these images set a tone for much of Davidson’s future works. His avoidance of the telephoto lens ensures that he is in the thick of his chosen environment, building relationships, becoming part of his subjects’ worlds, rather than an observer. I feel that as a result of this, Davidson’s images give off an honest grittiness, unobtainable from a larger distance. This method of work allows Davidson to rely more on his instincts; he professes to subliminally know when he’s captured a great image, even if he’s not yet sure why.
