In May 2017, after 146 years, the greatest show on earth went dark forever. The circus, the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus, just wasn’t right for the times. The tarnish from “thirty-six years of costly legal battles with animal rights activists” (NY Times) brought the circus down. I supported the closing, but at the same time, I felt compelled to photograph the last performances at Barclay Center in Brooklyn and at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York.

The circus held a special place in children’s hearts. I remember feeling that way when I was young. The lions and elephants were awesomely strong in the circus poster, bold actors along with the other performers and the clowns.

The fantasy is still crisp, without borders and without end. We wanted to run away and join the circus. But the nostalgia is somber, washed dull by sweat and tears, lashed to the cruelty that was essential to this greatest show on earth. Without what made it great, it can’t be great again. And what made it great was the fantasy where all was well, all awesome, and all strong.

The nostalgia was palpable during these last nights. The big tent, the ring, the painted smiles, the flash, the moment. I wanted to capture the faded fringe of that fantasy, its essential flaw, at once both the end of an epoch yet still alive as a childhood memory.