THE CIRCUS
“The Circus” is Karine's first book — which, over the course of two years, documents her portraiture of night dancers in New York City’s underground.
Beginning in 2009, the concept for the series came through one of Karine’s friends, a hairstylist who happened to be working at a gentleman’s club in midtown Manhattan. Instinctively, Karine wanted to photograph the girls there and, perhaps, involve a different kind of audience into the both beautiful and sordid details of their lives.
At the beginning of the project, Karine found that only a few of the girls were open to being photographed. Feeling their own superiority and finessed with sass, they passed by her improvised studio and regarded her presence — along with the concept, in general — with a clear disdain. The few girls who did allow themselves to be photographed eventually found ‘a home’ in the act. For them, it was the first opportunity that they had been given to examine who they were, who they wanted to be — and whether or not the two could ever harmoniously coexist.
The photographs that make up this book are simply a small selection from a most colorful array of this group of girls’ lives. The frames captured are honest — whether it comes in the form of thighs and wrists, strapped tightly by elastics with one-hundred-dollar bills in them, or a more quiet moment portraying a young dancer. This is the documentation of a circus — their circus — that is so alive and so human in its inventing of itself as something new and wondrous every night.
by Lauren Isabeau
Publisher: Michel Haddi Studio Ltd
Foreword by Steven Sebring and Anastasia Mihailov
Dimensions: 30 x 23 cm
Pages: 64
Binding: Glossy, bound
Printed and Distributed in the UK.
www.michelhaddistudio.com
For any special requests please email to: info@karinegrace.com
signed and limited edition is available upon request
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/karinegracephotography
Instagram: karinegrace_stylefilo
Twitter: https://twitter.com/karinegrace_
In store sold by:
Dashwood Books, New York City
Bookmarc, Omotesando Tokyo
Flying bookstore, Shibuya Tokyo
Kyoshi Art Gallery, Tokyo
Buchhandlung im Volkshaus, Zurich
available online on: https://www.magazinecafe.co.uk