My name is Jackson Bowley and I’m a photographer and art director based in London. I run Circus magazine, an A1 poster magazine that has an emphasis on fun, beauty and the bizarre! 

My personal work is heavily rooted in portraiture and beauty, I enjoy blurring the two. It’s all very playful, colourful and upbeat. 

Boredom. I was very bored and quite frustrated with the beauty and fashion industry. With Circus, I just wanted to curate a selection of posters from artists I admire who are making crazy and or beautiful work with minimal creative restrictions. 

I find the concept of beauty super broad, and I like playing on that with Circus. I don’t want the magazine to be filled with classic ideas of beauty imagery, but to play on the idea of beauty as a whole. I also just love creating fun and beautiful imagery, and beauty is a really fun tool to bring these ideas to life. 

I think it’s creatives that have the power to make fantasy a reality, and we can use beauty as a tool to facilitate that.

Honestly, it’s funny. I’ve always loved subtle absurdity in art and film. Creating something that requires a double take is a really incredible thing to be able to too. 

The beauty industry is moving at a crazy pace and there’s a lot of room for different creative identities within that space, but I try not to let Circus get driven by trends but by taste. 

It’s super fun, but also quite stressful at times, although I try not to let it get too stressful. I do Circus because I love making it and I want to keep it that way. 

With Circus, I try to mix it up and allow for creative freedom. When I approach someone it’s because I have an idea suited to them, or someone specifically I want to pair them with. I try and cast the net wide when looking for people to be involved with Circus, for example having the cover shot by an Olympic photographer based in Glasgow. I also have a lot of super talented friends that I want to shoot for it too, but it is really important I don’t just keep it within a small London crowd. I do a lot of research when planning an issue, I have the beauty of time on my side, so I don’t need to rush to fill the pages. 

Snazaroo makeup guides, cinema before CGI, CGI, robots and Flickr.  

I’m working on a theme for issue 03 as we speak, it’s going to be out of this world...