At one point during my photography journey I was challenged to really dig down. I listened to music and spent a lot of time looking back and looking inwards. I noticed that images of clowns and carnivals kept resurfacing and decided to let them take form through a personal photography project.

There is something both exhilarating and terrifying about the circus: the pulsating crowds, loud voices, bright colors, and painted faces. On one hand it appeals to the imagination: an explosion to our senses, the epitome of wonder and entertainment… On the other hand, there is something mysterious and burlesque about this parading masquerade of performers.

When I was a child clowns frightened me and later the fear turned into a fascination. I always wonder what is hiding beneath the painted face, the contorted pose.

In a world where many women learn to depend on make-up at an early age to feel beautiful, where most people feel compelled to wear a variety of ‘masks’ to seek approval, to please, sometimes to get through the day…clowns really take on symbolic significance. The image above, a very recent of mine, represents the objectification of the “exotic other”, but is also a story about the fierce protectiveness of a mother towards her child—a universal subject that is always very close to my heart