Le Grand Cirque des Enfants – Photographs of Bakyard Circus c. 1955

In the 1950s these children made a backyard circus

What if I asked you to come with me? I’ll teach you to walk the tightrope, way up in the air, with all the lights on you. I have a car. We’d be traveling all the time. We’d have a world of fun. Would you like that?

– The Fool, La Strada (1954)

 

vintage snapshots children

 

Le Grand Cirque des Enfants is a series of photographs by English-born Jack Sharp (1928-1992). In 1955 Jack took a job as an engineer at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, better known as the hymned CERN (originally: Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléairein) in Geneva, Switzerland. When there he took these pictures. We don’t know the names of the children building a circus in Jack’s pictures found by his grandson Dylan. We’d love to, of course. If that’s you or someone you know, please get in touch. We can imagine the stories between the pictures.

 

vintage snapshots children

 

vintage snapshots children

vintage snapshots children

vintage snapshots children

vintage snapshots children vintage snapshots children
vintage snapshots children vintage snapshots children vintage snapshots children vintage snapshots children
 vintage snapshots children vintage snapshots children
vintage snapshots children vintage snapshots children vintage snapshots children vintage snapshots children vintage snapshots children vintage snapshots children

vintage snapshots children

Keep up with Jack’s life and times on Dylan’s Instagram and website.

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