Bullfight

by Sanchez, Ricardo B.; Campbell, Joseph (CON); Olivares, Rosa

• ISBN13: 9780983270218
• ISBN10: 098327021X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-01-16
• Publisher: Glitterati Inc

Summary

Photographer Ricardo Sanchez's vivid artworks and text reflect this exquisite pas de deux, where the bull and the bullfighter trace the lines and forms of their existence with each pass. An intersection of tradition, culture, art, and nature; this book visually demonstrates that a bullfight is a ballet's pas de deux and offers a different view on what is sometimes considered a brutal sport.

Author Biography

RICARDO B. SANCHEZ was born in Caracas, Venezuela and educated in Massachusetts at Deerfield Academy, Tufts University, and The Museum School of Fine Arts in Boston. For the past decades he has photographed bullfighters at top arenas in Spain and today examines through his lens other cultural subjects of Spain, where he currently resides. His work is in the collection of New York City's International Center of Photography, among other major museums in the United States and abroad, and he has exhibited his work widely in America and Europe.

Excerpts

To transmute the threatening and dangerous existence of a beast into something as gossamer as a dancer's veil is the great marvel of bullfighting (Manuel Chaves Nogales). Combining the knowledge of his craft with intelligence, willpower, courage and art, a bullfighter uses two cloths (the cape and the muleta) to lead, dominate, pass and kill a charging bull. The pass as it occurs in a bullfight can be regarded as a metaphoric representation of life as it occurs outside of the ring. My photographs illustrate how though all passes are the same-the bull must always pass-they are never equal. Like fingerprints and the steps we take in our lives, there are no two that are identical; the pass is that which forever comes and goes, without ever repeating itself.