Portraits from.. The Great Royal Circus, India -1991.

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I spent some time with a huge Indian traditional Circus. Coming from what was called ‘New Circus’ in the late 1980’s, Theatrical Circus without animals. It was very odd to see animals being kept… but this was like going back in time, back to an 1890’s -1930’s Circus. A massive 3,500 seater Big Top, 3 shows a day… each show full up. That's 10,000 entertained people per day. The big boss liked me being around, I shown off as ‘high status’ European. I was welcomed ,  befriended by the performers & crew alike. The lighting conditions were extreme for old ‘analogue’ film… Far  too dark inside the swealeringly hot ‘black-out’ tent and scorchingly bright direct sun outside. Shot on 'old' Kodachrome 64  which was an expensive high quality transparency film, not very sensitive to light only 64 ASA (ISO) but very sensitive to heat and airport X-ray machines. It is not made any more…