Keiran Perry – Smoke Filled Mirror

Review by Gerhard Clausing •

For many of us the circus is a special experience full of magic. Some of us have at times felt a longing to be part of such a group of itinerant individuals that create illusions and bring special feats into what for most of us was the rather humdrum existence of ‘regular’ citizens. In smaller towns and rural areas across Europe this tradition is still a strong attraction as part of a long respected artistic history, while in the US offshoots like Cirque du Soleil and Las Vegas shows are doing well also, and a few traveling circuses still exist.

Leave it to Keiran Perry, an excellent documentary and portrait photographer, to immerse himself in a Northern England circus over several years. When life is not so linear, it opens you up to further special surprises. By becoming a circus person himself, he was able to create portraits as shared experiences, as well as realistic documentation from behind the scenes.

Looking at this impressive volume as a whole, we get the idea that the life of circus people is both exciting and strenuous. The performance aspects reflect the excitement of many moments, as you can see below. From the audience’s perspective, the perception and enjoyment of the live performances depend on many surprises and moments of grand magic. We get the feeling that behind that magic are quite a few moments of stress as well (motorcycle stunts, breakdowns of all sorts of equipment, just to name two). We are shown their modest and colorfully varied living quarters, the ever-changing life of an itinerant group made up of many nationalities. Repairs of vehicles and other things are always lurking around the next corner. Practice and fun in off moments can often be one and the same. Perry’s portraits demonstrate the dedication and earnestness of the circus folks, as well as the creative relationship between the photographer and the groups and individuals.

Thus, Keiran Perry is able to establish a strong immediacy between the circus world and the viewer/reader of the photobook. We find ourselves in the midst of an appealing world, one which for many of us is just a part of nostalgia, for others it is an occasional diversion and still generates the excitement of it all. The pages are generously large, with well-printed images that maximally measure about 9.5 x 11 inches individually, or 11 x 19 inches as a flush horizontal double-page spread.

I recommend Perry’s Smoke Filled Mirror especially as an exciting example of a photographer’s personalized and spiritually touched and touching coverage of an entertainment world of live performers who overcome many obstacles in showing their best, both in their shows and behind the scenes. A creative reflection of our wishes for a world with more magic!

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Gerhard Clausing, Editorial Consultant and PBJ Editor Emeritus, is an author and artist from Southern California.

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Keiran Perry – Smoke Filled Mirror

Photographer: Keiran Perry (born and lives in the UK)

Texts: Keiran Perry; poem by Kate MacKay

Language: English

Creative Direction: Ben Goulder

Art Direction and Design: Alex Currie

Editor: Sherif Dhaimish

Hardback with tipped-in cover image; 166 pages; 9.8 x 11.4 inches (25 x 29 cm); printed and bound in Poland by Interak; edition of 500; ISBN 978-1-7393259-5-4

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Articles and photographs published in the PhotoBook Journal may not be reproduced without the permission of the PhotoBook Journal staff and the photographer(s). All images, texts, and designs are under copyright by the authors and publishers.