On March 23, 2026, I had the opportunity to document the Coney Island Clown Skool as a photographer. I have always been drawn to clowns, the sense of defiance, the creation of the self and a light hearted attitude deeply fascinate me. Yet little did I expect this experience to become such a transformative and ecstatic encounter.

During this intensive time with the students, an atmosphere of utopia gradually emerged through the connections we built over time and through the various teachings of clowning, including mime, juggling, puppetry, and physical comedy, where shared imagination, collaboration, and being present are always at the core.

To be within this community felt both empowering and quietly hopeful. These images emerge from that shared process of building a temporary yet meaningful world together, a space that values human connection, individuality, and emotion over economic gain, where play becomes a way of being. At the same time, this space remains fragile and constructed, existing in the shadow of Coney Island’s spectacle economy and the broader neoliberal landscape that surrounds it.

When the shutter is pressed between me and the students, a form of play and mutual recognition takes place, something close to miming where gestures are exchanged and understood. The act of photographing becomes part of the performance itself. As the school’s slogan says, “enter curious, leave inspired,” these photographs trace a collective movement towards transcendence through creation of identity, play, and sustained attentiveness to the present –  a manifestation of an alternative state charged with anticipation.