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My relationship to Jacksons Lane starts in the early 1970s. Our family moved to Muswell Hill when I was twelve, in 1973. My cousin Annette lived just around the corner from Jacksons Lane, and we’d often visit her. She and her neighbours in The Park were very involved in the anti-motorway protests of the 1970s – STAMP (Stop The Archway Motorway Plan) – and that’s when I first encountered the place. I don’t think it was Jacksons Lane at that point: just a squatted church. Squatted like so many of the properties on Archway Road, all under planning blight and scheduled for imminent demolition as part of the GLC’s plan to widen Archway road into a motorway-style dual carriageway.

Since then I’ve done classes and courses at Jacksons Lane, I’ve performed in the theatre in a number of guises: as compere of The Circus Space cabaret, made a film at Jacksons Lane during lockdown… and most recently, last October, with my performing partner Natalie Reckert in our show Natalie Inside Out. Jacksons Lane has really nurtured mine and Natalie’s work. We won the National Centre for Circus Arts Lab:Time Squared award in 2016. That included a residency at Jacksons Lane, where we played and investigated and laid the foundations for our work. Since then Jacksons Lane has given us rehearsal space, R&D time, performances in the theatre, and Adrian Berry has given us invaluable mentoring and support. Adrian’s championing of us has been wonderful, and Jacksons Lane’s support for Contemporary Circus feeds and nurtures the whole sector. We’re looking forward to returning here to work on our next show, “The Unheimlich Manoeuvre”.

I think I was eight or nine when I started taking photos seriously. By the age of 10 I was developing and printing my own film, generously supported by our next-door neighbour who gave me access to his basement darkroom.

Mark with his second camera, 1969.

The thing about circus, right, is that it’s real. There’s no suspension of disbelief. That extraordinary thing happening in front of your is really an extraordinary thing happening in front of you. I try and capture that extraordinary thing: the movement, the muscle, the skill, the concentration. But most of all the movement. I’m not a studio photographer: I photograph live circus, and that can be unpredictable. But my massive knowledge of circus – gained from 40 years in the business – helps me anticipate what will happen next, and gives me a good chance of capturing a circus body at the decisive moment.

Oh, that’s too hard to say! There’ve been wonderful shows I’ve taken awful photos of, and awful shows I’ve taken great shots of! Right up there, though, would have to be Mish Weaver’s Box of Frogs, a show where the director used circus as a metaphor for bipolar disorder. From the manic acrobat to his depressed flyer, I thought it was highly effective portrayal of mental illness. My photos weren’t great, but the show was very memorable.

The standing ovation we received when performing Natalie Inside Out last October. We’d brought the show to Jacksons Lane pre-pandemic, and this was a return visit. We’d asked Sean Kempton to work with us on a couple of problematic scenes, and this was the first public showing of the re-rehearsed work. The show got off to a flying start, and the work we’d done with Sean made all the difference: everything clicked into place, we were on fire. I remember standing there on the stage, taking the bow at the end, with the biggest grin on my face.

You can visit a free exhibition of Mark’s photographs in our foyer throughout August.  Find out more here.

Header image: Natalie Inside Out final bows.