Portraits of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus performers and staff
Add to Lightbox Download
Portrait of school teacher and contortionist Laura Sutton, who's been traveling with the circus the teaching the staff's children for two years. "[A] big part of the lifestyle here is that we train together. I'll be training in the classrooms in the mornings and the kids will come in and drop off their school bags and go do something else while I'm in the middle of a backbend. And then after school I'll go out onto the floor and I'll train with them and the little ones are learning to do their splits and their handstands, and I'll be doing more contortions."
"I think it takes a lot of it to survive in the circus. I mean, you can't just get caught up in your one skill. I've heard a lot of students whose parents really encourage them to learn more than one skill, like more than just trapeze, more than just motorcycle riding, so they can be valuable to other circuses because maybe they won't spend their whole lives here."
After 146 years, the "Greatest Show on Earth" will close its curtain in the end of May.
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus started in 1919 when the circus created by James Anthony Bailey and P. T. Barnum merged with the Ringling Brothers Circus. The circus' parent company, Feld Entertainment, made the decision to end the show after waning ticket sales and long court battles over the treatment of animals, particularly the elephants, made the costly entertainment event unsustainable.
![Portrait of school teacher and contortionist Laura Sutton, who's been traveling with the circus the teaching the staff's children for two years. "[A] big part of the lifestyle here is that we train together. I'll be training in the classrooms in the mornings and the kids will come in and drop off their school bags and go do something else while I'm in the middle of a backbend. And then after school I'll go out onto the floor and I'll train with them and the little ones are learning to do their splits and their handstands, and I'll be doing more contortions."<br />
<br />
"I think it takes a lot of it to survive in the circus. I mean, you can't just get caught up in your one skill. I've heard a lot of students whose parents really encourage them to learn more than one skill, like more than just trapeze, more than just motorcycle riding, so they can be valuable to other circuses because maybe they won't spend their whole lives here." <br />
<br />
After 146 years, the "Greatest Show on Earth" will close its curtain in the end of May. <br />
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus started in 1919 when the circus created by James Anthony Bailey and P. T. Barnum merged with the Ringling Brothers Circus. The circus' parent company, Feld Entertainment, made the decision to end the show after waning ticket sales and long court battles over the treatment of animals, particularly the elephants, made the costly entertainment event unsustainable.](https://m.psecn.photoshelter.com/img-get2/I0000N2fLg5527EE/fit=1000x750/g=G0000BI8ps.2vTPA/150827-Sinclair-RinglingPortraits-001.jpg)
