David Degner

A Night at Niblo’s Garden · Brooklyn · July 16–17, 2026

An acrobat holds a horizontal balance atop stacked chairs beside Crescent Water.

Photographing the Bindlestiff Circus at Green-Wood

For two evenings in July, I photographed Bindlestiff Family Cirkus at Green-Wood’s A Night at Niblo’s Garden. Founded by Keith Nelson and Stephanie Monseu in 1995, Bindlestiff brings together circus, sideshow, and vaudeville. I got to watch these performers work the crowd, swallow swords, and create majestic scenes—while trying to keep photographing through my own awe.

Thanks to Amanda Mustard for passing this assignment my way. It was a lot of work and one of the most fun assignments I’ve done. Before the performances, I photographed the show taking shape in small pieces: costume racks between the gravestones, makeup in a hand mirror, and a feathered wing being prepared beside a path. Those moments matter to me in event photography as much as the spectacle itself.

The front of a circus truck bears a New York C1RKUS license plate.
Costumes hang on racks between gravestones before the circus performance.
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A tattooed performer applies makeup while looking into a hand mirror.
A small metal horn is fixed to the handlebars of a black bicycle.
A seated performer in a white shirt gestures with one hand during preparation.
A performer prepares a large white feathered wing beside a cemetery path.
A performer rehearses near a standing mirror as a juggler practices by the mausoleum.
Costumed performers juggle clubs in a grassy cemetery clearing.
A bowler-hatted performer speaks through a megaphone beside a unicycle.
A black bowler hat rests on the narrow top of a tan cone.
Bindlestiff performers gather for a group portrait in front of the Niblo mausoleum.
Crowds watch across Crescent Water as illuminated hoops glow below the lit Niblo mausoleum at night.

Niblo’s stage, from Broadway to Green-Wood

The setting has a theatrical history of its own. William Niblo, an Irish immigrant and impresario, created a Manhattan pleasure garden that grew into Niblo’s Garden theater on Broadway. Its 1866 production of The Black Crook is often cited as an early American musical. Niblo and his wife Martha rest here beside Crescent Water, where Green-Wood now brings the garden’s spirit back for an annual night of performance. Green-Wood credits researcher and author Benjamin Feldman with bringing Niblo’s story to the event.

Green-Wood’s account of Niblo describes him welcoming friends to his lakeside mausoleum for picnics and entertainment. He made this part of the cemetery a gathering place in his own time. With Bindlestiff’s music, movement, and visitors circling Crescent Water, I could see why the site’s history still gives the performance its shape.

A sleeping child sculpture rests below the name Martha Niblo on a stone memorial.
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A gray-haired musician performs at a keyboard surrounded by percussion instruments.
A hand holds a mallet beside a bright yellow metal mold used as percussion.
A gray-haired musician sits on a small outdoor stage with instruments behind him.
Three performers talk beside colorful costumes spread beneath trees.
Families and other visitors sit beside Crescent Water watching the circus.
A clown in a bowler hat and red nose smiles outdoors.
A bowler-hatted clown sits in a canoe at the edge of Crescent Water.
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Following the acts around Crescent Water

Smoke from fires in Canada made the first day of photography unusually difficult; the air cleared for the second. The acts were spread around the lake, so I had to choose and predict where to be for each photograph. Even then, there was a lot of running.

As a photographer working in New York, I was looking for both the scale of the show and the moments happening close to me: a clown in a canoe, a sword raised among the spectators, fire crossing the lake after dark. That is the photojournalistic photography I bring to an event—following what actually happens, including the moments between the planned acts.

Performers use long horns among spectators gathered on a cemetery path.
A performer in a red shirt raises a hoop while the crowd watches near the lake.
A performer in a blue jacket holds a sword and a small wooden case.
A performer tilts back his head with a sword raised above his mouth as spectators watch.
A gold-costumed performer dances amid water jets on a floating platform.
Three performers carry flaming torches in a canoe on Crescent Water after dark.
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A fire performer holds bright flames against a dark evening background.

What stayed with me was the change in the place itself. A cemetery that usually feels somber became, for a few hours, a place of real happiness: an invitation to step out of everyday life and into something fanciful.