The magazine of the art-form of the photo-essay “A free, really high quality photo-essay magazine. Fabulous!” Stephen Fry. British actor, writer and film & documentary maker

May 2015 back issue

by Daniel González Acuña

I grew up near the Plaza de Toros de la Maestranza, Seville's bullring, in the heart of the quarter called El Arenal. Despite of this, I am not a very enthusiastic supporter of bullfighting. I remember when I was a child going to the bullring, at the end of the "corrida", and seeing how dead bulls were cut to pieces before being sold for meat (now this is forbidden due to a disease known as bluetongue). This reportage was shot during the Feria de Abril (Seville's Fair) of 2014, one of the most important bullfighting events in Spain. That afternoon, bullfighters Manuel Diaz "El Cordobes", Juan JosÈ Padilla and David Fandila "El Fandi" took part in the bullfight at the Maestranza. It was a top cast of bullfighters and this fact was evident in the atmosphere. Bullfighting is a visceral event. Blood, death, boldness, suffering, pain, fear converge in an complex spectacle with equally visceral supporters and detractors. There are many ways to read bullfighting: like an art, a cruelty, a tradition. As a trained historian, I read into bullfighting like the remains of a primitive context, a moment when natural forces were preeminent over human beings. In these circumstances, ceremonies to conjure up fear into the unknown, to natural arbitrariety, were designed. Ceremonies where human beings faced fierce nature, identified with the bull. There is no better image of the devil than the bull, with their dangerous horns, its huge size, its awesome power. Bulls become victims of expiation, so the public projects its hope over the bullfighter as a representative of the Humankind. There is something irrational in this spectacle. The victory of bullfighter represents the victory of human beings over the chaotic world. The supremacy of man over the beast. Now, bullfighting has a less religious or metaphysical dimension and has more festive and economic implications. But its form derives directly from a historical way of man-to-man battle, including cutting pieces of body of the defeated (ear, tail and head). On this occasion, Juan José Padilla was the only matador to win an ear. The public recognized his achievement, the supremacy over darkness was restored.