Pedro Anisio Captures the Untold Lives of Brazil’s Marginalised Circus Performers

“The earliest memories of my childhood are from the circus ring,” Brazilian photographer Pedro Anisio tells me, “during the performances of the travelling troupe my mother was a part of.” Until he was twelve years old, that world – itinerant, dazzling, and often difficult – was Anisio’s home. When he returned to it through the camera nearly two decades later, it wasn’t so much nostalgia he was seeking, but recognition – an acknowledgment of the hard graft that goes into this art form. “The Circus project was born from a desire to reconnect with my earliest artistic references in life,” he explains, “and now, with the ability to admire the resilience of these performers.”

The series brings together more than forty artists from Paraíba, many of whom Anisio has known since childhood. “Today, I revisit these characters through a contemporary lens,” he says. The result is a portrait not only of people but of persistence – a regional art form that has carried on, often unnoticed, at the edges of Brazil’s cultural mainstream.

“Access to culture in Brazil is still deeply unequal,” Anisio points out. “A large part of the population has no real opportunity to experience artistic expressions, often due to the concentration of cultural institutions in central, urban areas.” The circus has long occupied a peripheral space – in Brazil and across the world – both accessible and marginalised. “There is a duality in how this tradition is perceived. On one hand, there are those who celebrate it, recognising its historical and cultural value. On the other, circus arts are still widely dismissed, often seen as a profession that is not taken seriously, especially when it comes from the Northeast [of Brazil].”

Anisio sets out to “capture these people in moments that we, those of us outside the circus world, rarely get to see.” Revealing the quiet labour beneath the glossy show, his images tell the stories of human lives, saturated with empathy.  “The glamour of the circus ring is seen here through a raw lens,” he says. “People are serious, sometimes sombre, focused on performing their craft, a craft that, though often trivialised by the public, demands deep commitment and dedication.”

The clown, for him, is central to this story. “When we think about the roots of clowning, one of its main origins is the Commedia dell’Arte,” he says – a movement that brought theatre “to the streets and to the people.” Its humour was a form of resistance, a way to speak truth sideways. “This irony is still very much alive in the figure of the clown today. I believe clowns remain popular because they say what no one else has the courage to say, but in a way everyone wants to hear.”

Trained as an interior designer and filmmaker, with a postgraduate degree in light design, Anisio builds his images from an understanding of how light shapes meaning. His research into image-making processes, such as cyanotype and screen-printing, extends that sensitivity into questions of memory and materiality. He resists being called a documentarian. “I believe I’m more of an interpreter,” he says. “Although I photograph real moments, I immerse myself in the atmosphere and translate the layers of resilience, sorrow, and struggle into my images.”



Photography by Pedro Anisio