El Legado de Luis Raluy
After the death of the circus director, clown and mathematician Luís Raluy (on December 29, 2021) during the Raluy Legacy Circus tour in Valencia, his legacy continues on its way and the circus continues. Arriving in Castellón, my city, on the next scale, is when this photographic project begins to take shape in my head. The circus show preserves the essence of the classic circus, with its careful aesthetics, with the images that endure in our childhood imagination. At that moment, the crossroads take place: photography from the 19th century and circus from the 20th century.
The Raluy Legacy Circus is considered the greatest exponent in maintaining tradition and the authentic spirit of the traditional circus. The Raluy Legacy perfectly combines the aesthetics and good work of the classic circus with technical innovation in its shows, which has earned it important recognition worldwide.
The maintenance of the circus tradition is evident in the transfer, conservation, care and recovery of its hundred-year-old wagons, as well as in the tent, the stage, the trucks, etc. and time, effort and affection are dedicated to the restoration tasks.
The Raluy Legacy Circus, directed today by the daughters of Luís Raluy, continues the tradition of a family that has been dedicated to the profession for more than six generations with the same devotion as its founder did in its beginnings. The photographic project was carried out using the wet plate collodion process, an ancient photography technique, since the legacy is centennial in the same way that the process is (dating from 1850). A historical process for a circus with history.
The photographic report consists of images that range from the assembly of the circus tent, to shots of the wagons from the early 20th century, through portraits and ending with the exit from the site, at which time the roads separate. The photographer's gaze when visiting, seeing and capturing these elements in the space occupied by the circus transports us to childhood and a past that we can go through again.
project exhibited in the Revela-T Contemporary Analog Photography Festival 2024
