Barbara Bennett, “World’s Smallest Mother,” and Ed Bennett, Columbus, Ohio, 1976

In the summers of the 1970s, Randal Levenson traveled with sideshows and carnivals in the United States and Canada, living and working in their community, first as an outsider and later as an intimate, capturing the intelligence, wit, and warmth of the carnival characters.

Levenson portrayed the performers in their private moments, relaxing amid traveling gear, or posed with their families and personal mementos. Though powerfully new in their time—intimate, frank, and sometimes shocking—the images also manage to evoke the America of hand-painted signs, cotton candy, and Saturday afternoons spent strolling the midway. In 1982, Aperture published Levenson's intimate document of the carnival life, In Search of the Monkey Girl. The book, which features text by legendary performance artist and writer Spalding Gray, accompanies the photograph.

Gelatin-Silver Print
Edition of 100 and 10 Artist’s Proofs
Paper Size: 20 x 16 inches
Image Size: 18 3/8 x 14 1/2 inches

Randal Levenson (b. 1946, Wichita Falls, Texas) is a photographer, who grew up in New England. In the 1960s, Levenson spent time in Alaska, where he developed an interest in photography. He works with large-format, black-and-white photography. He is represented by Robert Klein Gallery, Boston, MA.