A Photo Exhibition on Indian Circus

Exhibition Details: Circus, we all know, is an incredible spectacle. Dare devil acts, fierce animals, carnivalesque big tops, colorful clowns all contribute to the spectacular aura of the ring. But the lives on the other side of the arena have many different shades to it. As part of my doctoral research, I have collected approximately 2000 photographs from different parts of the Indian subcontinent dating from early twentieth century to the present. Most of these wonderful images are from the personal albums of the circus community spread across various towns and villages. It was as if they have created an archive of their own. They are imprints of intimacy, rage, happiness, and danger under the big top.
The collection of photographs falls into two categories; photographs taken by professional photographers who are commissioned by the circus owners for business and publicity purposes. The other set of images, as mentioned earlier, are memories of places and people often taken by local studio photographers or poignant moments randomly captured by friends and colleagues.
The history of Indian circus remains more or less a history of memories. Visual materials such as photographs, notices and posters are potential sources of these memories. While looking at the history of Indian circus as part of my research, the major challenge I faced was not only the absence of state archival sources but also personal histories and memoirs. In the sub-continent, regions such as Kerala, Maharashtra, or Bengal have rich histories of circus acrobatics and animal training that span over a century. But it is hard to find an autobiography or diary of a circus being in either Marathi, Malayalam or Bengali, all these languages with vibrant literary and publishing traditions. Visual representation could bridge the grand gaps in the remembrance and archiving of the past. The collection of images include the transnational histories of Indian circus connecting Europe, Southeast Asia and Africa. It is in this context that I am proposing a week-long Photo Exhibition on Indian circus as part of the ICAS international conference in Indonesia. I had curated a photo exhibition from these collection of photographs in 2013, January at the prestigious Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi, India.