Six white dogs and circus tent, Indian circus

Artist Mary Ellen Mark (American, 1940–2015)

Date1989

MediumGelatin silver print Edition 5/25

DimensionsImage: 15 5/16 × 15 1/8 inches (38.9 × 38.4 cm);
Sheet: 19 7/8 × 15 15/16 inches (50.5 × 40.5 cm)

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineGift of Dr. Diana Wisdom and Gabriel Wisdom, in honor of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Class of 1954

Terms

Photographs
American

Object number2020.019.015

Label CopyMary Ellen Mark traveled with the Indian photographer Dayanita Singh to intensively document eighteen circuses operating in villages and cities—from small-scale shows to top productions with many human and animal performers. Author John Irving, who coincidentally was also present, wrote in the foreword to Mark’s photobook Indian Circus: “What she has captured is a life of great daring and relentless hard work, but also the feeling of what a family the circus is to its performers—including its animals.”

In this image, Rani (meaning “queen”) of the Great Bombay Circus is on a cart, raised slightly higher than the rest of her canine colleagues. As “Star of the Dog Act,” she captured with her front legs raised. The others are waiting for their turn to pose and perform in this practice session.

Mark also photographed circus dogs in Vietnam and Mexico, clad in dresses and perched on stools or with their trainer, as well as other animals, in her depictions of the human-animal circus economy and ecology. In the preface to Mark’s Indian Circus, an animal trainer shares, “You feed animals, they live with you, stay with you, and die with you. Everything that is on two feet is very immoral, but animals are not innocent. The more you look after them, the more treacherous they are, but the four-legged things are still better than the two-legged things.

—Ayesha Matthan, PhD candidate

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