On a Trapeze, Reaching for an Elusive Dream

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Christian Rodriguez has pictures of upside-down people â€" and upside-down elephants â€" in his series on the seemingly glamorous occupation of being a circus artist.

But his images are not really about the circus. They’re pictures of daily life, which just happen to be at two Vietnamese circuses, one in Hanoi, the capital, and the other in Ho Chi Minh City, the country’s largest city.
“It’s a story of work,” said Mr. Rodriguez from Madrid, where he lives. “They fight to live every day. The conditions are very hard.”

Mr. Rodriguez, born and raised in Uruguay, has traveled to Vietnam three times. Together, his projects, “Xiec” â€" circus in Vietnamese â€" and “Chut Chut” â€" a little bit â€" are a powerful documentary, showing not the glamour of the circus, but the moments in between.

Christian Rodriguez Nguyen Van Giang is the elephant trainer at the Vietnam Circus Federation.

The performers at the Vietnam Circus Federation, in Hanoi, work for the government. The city â€" the seat of political power â€" is more conservative than Ho Chi Minh, and the people living there are more traditional, Mr. Rodriguez said.

Members of the troupe begin training early every morning. They host three or four performances daily, in shifts, often traveling outside of the city. Mr. Rodriguez was surprised to see the reaction of the onlookers, particularly in small towns nearby. The entire population of one village went to see the show. “In the past, the circus was very famous,” Mr. Rodriguez said of western countries, “but now nobody wants to see a circus show.”

When Mr. Rodriguez first traveled to Asia, in 2009, he had planned to spend three days in Hanoi. He rethought his itinerary when he found the circus, staying instead for three weeks. On his second visit, two years later, he lived in a house with a male circus performer, riding by motorbike to the circus grounds.

“In the beginning, all the time, I was thinking about how to make the best picture, just thinking in photos,” he said. “But when you share the life with the people â€" share special moments, share meals, travel there â€" you are in the place you need to be to make a good picture.”

Christian Rodriguez From left, the team leader Toan Thang Tong and Bui Khanh Du, who fell after breaking the rope that held her foot, and Pham Thi Houng and Hai Quan Bui, who had an accident two days before and injured his neck.

Mr. Rodriguez began following the lives of four female roommates: An 18-year-old aerialist, an elephant rider and two acrobats in their early 20s.

On the same visit, he traveled to Ho Chi Minh and began following a group of siblings with the Ho Chi Minh Circus Group. In particular, he has been interested in the story of one of the siblings: Ma Hoang An, 26, and his wife, Nguyen Thi Thu Hiep, a 20-year-old contortionist. He was invited to their wedding, in their hometown. Like most of the artists, they are from smaller, rural towns.

Vietnamese circus hopefuls spend about five years in school, most hoping to land jobs with the Hanoi-based troupe, Mr. Rodriguez said. Those who don’t get in head to Ho Chi Minh City, where the troupe is smaller and somewhat less prestigious. The circus is more central, and lures more tourists than in Hanoi. Yet life for the artists is not easy.

“They live in an old theater, totally destroyed,” said Mr. Rodriguez, who slept there.

At first, he said, most of the performers tried to hide the difficulties. “Many of the people of the circus have iPhones or have iPads, but they don’t have a good place to live,” Mr. Rodriguez said. “At the beginning it was a little difficult to show it like they really live.”

Photos of the circus in Hanoi shot years ago by Mary Ellen Mark inspired him to pursue the subject, but his images are much different in style.

“I wanted to work in another way - yes, in the same circus, but focus on the daily life, looking for an intimate and close image,” he said. “Show another aspect of the circus.”

Last year, Mr. Rodriguez landed in Vietnam with 130 euros (about $167) to spend. He stayed for three months, returning to the same house in Ho Chi Minh and sharing a room with Nguyen Hoa Hoan Vu, Mr. Ma’s 13-year-old brother.

One of his favorite images from Ho Chi Minh shows Mr. Vu staring blankly as he eats a cherry tomato, perched on the edge of the bed where his brother sleeps with Ms. Hiep (below). The wall in the background is adorned with Winnie the Pooh stickers.

Christian Rodriguez Nguyen Hoa Hoang Vu, 13, ate a cherry while Ma Hoang An and Thi Thu Hiep continued to rest.

“It’s a moment of vulnerability,” Mr. Rodriguez said.

Mr. Rodriguez, 33, formerly worked as a wire and newspaper photographer in Uruguay. In 2009 he moved to Madrid to do his masters in photography. His work in Vietnam has taught him how to see things in a new way, he said. Since his completing his master’s degree, he has focused mostly on women, documenting immigrants in Spain and teenage mothers in Latin America. It was a single mother and circus artist, Nguyen Thi Sau, who first introduced him to the circus.

Mr. Rodriguez plans to return to both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh, hoping to make a documentary film about the circus. He is inspired by the artists’ determination. “They love training, they love working for the people,” he said. “They love when the people clap.”

In a way, the circus â€" the lights, the clothes, the colors â€" represents the lifestyle they dream of having, he said. “They want to live in a dream,” he said, “but they can’t.”

Christian Rodriguez Nguyen Thi Sau rode motorbikes with her son, Nim, and other circus artists on a night out in Hanoi.

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