title: Man Down

(see the full-size close-up below)

When everything goes smoothly and the man and bull perform like clockwork, one is lulled into believing that these are performers who have done these things before and you are watching a repetitious performance.

But of course this is not true. When something goes awry in this perfect performance… perhaps the wind blows the bullfighter’s cape and causes the bull to charge in an unexpected direction, then you suddenly realize you are not watching an automatic performance. Suddenly you see the power of this diverted bull when a horn-tip catches the man and with one seemingly effortless toss of the bull’s head, the man is hurled cart-wheeling into the air like a rag doll.

When he lands, the bull’s curved scimitars are there reaching for him. And it is up to the bullfighter’s aids to divert the bull away from the fallen man at that very critical moment caught here. If they fail, there is a good chance the man will be a fatality.

As are all of the others in this bullfight series, this was shot from the stands with a 35mm Edixa camera on Panatomic X black and white film. The slow shutter speed of 1/25^th second and developing for contrast enabled the salt and pepper look I wanted. Enlargement was considerable, the final print scanned into the computer for printing up to poster size.

This is a close-up image from the full-size print, showing the detail involved