CIRCUS: The Photographs of Frederick W. Glasier

Edited by Peter Kayafas and Deborah W. Walk
Essay by Lucy Sante

2009

This elegant new volume showcases the rediscovered work of the great American photographer Frederick W. Glasier, who made extraordinary photographs of the American circus during its heyday, 1890-1925. A contemporary of such recognized masters as Eugene Atget in Paris, August Sander in Cologne and Ernest J. Bellocq in New Orleans, Glasier is arguably in that class of the greatest practitioners of the medium. With 73 gloriously reproduced images from the 1,700 existing glass plate negatives from the collections of the John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Florida State University, informative anecdotal captions by the circus historian (and co-editor of this volume) Deborah W. Walk and a fascinating essay by Luc Sante, this book will establish Glasier in the canon of the great American photographers from the 20th century.

"Glasier's circus world is the magnificent realization of everything we have ever thought we knew about the circus, more classic and sexy and dignified and strange than anything we are likely to have seen in our own experience. . . . a thrilling and heartbreaking show."
–Luc Sante, essay from the book

"One of the most beautiful art books of recent years. . . . makes the strongest possible case for Glasier as a major figure in early twentieth-century photography. . ."
–Jed Perl, The New Republic