The Circus: A Traveling Life series chronicles a ten-year collaboration between Norma I. Quintana and an American, traveling one-ring circus. This haunting and intimate portrait series, shot in black and white film using available light, captures contemplative and playful moments with the families of artists and performers, off-stage and in back of the house, as they proudly perfect their craft. As author Mona Simpson describes, “The trust between photographer and subject that developed over that time is evident. Quintana took her time learning the lineage of these circus families. She presents them not as freaks or compulsives, but as workers in a private, insular, now almost-extinct world.”

Norma I. Quintana is an American photographer and educator working in the tradition of social documentary. She photographs with film, primarily in black and white using available light. Quintana has studied under Mary Ellen Mark, Graciela Iturbide and Shelby Lee Adams. She has lectured nationally at major universities, including art residencies at Penn State and American University Washington D.C. She is a founding member of the Bay Area non-profit, PhotoAlliance.