Fabulous images.

Great pictures! 1, 2 and 6 are my favourites :)

Excellent. Some of the best posted here.
Thank you

Magnificent!

Great!

images 5+6 are about as good as it gets. outstanding job, thanks for posting. :)>-

Gosh, thanks y'all!! Yes, heavily modified VSCO v.1.0 for Lightroom. Kodak Portra 800+ with a bunch of my own tweaks, if memory serves. It's funny, I purchased VSCO many moons ago and never touched it... I hated it... but it really grew on me and I use it a lot now, even in my stuff for clients (though for clients I use the barely-there presets for minor adjustments only).

awesome series!!!

if they were turned B&W would they be too heavily PPd?
just throwing that out there as a real question...

would you go anywhere near war? anywhere near auschwitz or birkenau? the killing fields of the khmer rouge? roman colosseum? a rodeo? a pet store? a slaughterhouse? do you eat meat?
the brutality of man is everywhere... all around you. i hated watching the bullfight, but i loved taking pictures of it. i respect your desire to never see cruelty to animals (or to man), but pose the question, shouldn't we bear witness?

@shadowdetails whether or not one agrees with bullfighting, you've documented it quite well here.. nice work.

When I look at them, honestly, I feel bad for the bull. But isn't that what art asks of us? To have an emotion one way or the other? So, in that sense, it's worth documenting..I haven't seen a bullfighting picture in quite some time.. so it's heightened my awareness of the brutality. I suppose we can criticize artists for their interpretations, but then where does that get us? If these photos have influenced you to take up the task of preventing bullfighting in Europe, then perhaps we should appreciate them for that purpose.

Despite my strong words I am conflicted with the choice to photograph this act or not. But since I feel I should come down on one side or the other I still feel its something we don't need documenting and publicising more, or atleast (and I mean this in the best possible way) this trite, picture-postcard quaint aspect of bright colours, wizened looking old men and rustic scene and triumphant man aspect. It's just done to death (pardon the pun) IMHO and brings nothing new.
I mean this purely from a documentary view point. As postcards for tourists who wish to share this, these are great.
Sorry if this offends, I don't mean to but I do wish I could get more from these and I just find them falling flat and emotionless for me (which may suprise).
I'm no paint throwing, bunny hugging vegan btw but I do think this particular part of European "culture" has long outlived its value much like fox hunting here in the uk

@steve1401 ha no, i didnt think id offended you, or anyone specifically, just making sure my candour didnt come over as too veracious.
yeah tree-huggers here too, but trees arent genrally tortured for the delectation and entertainment of small minded people, drooling into their laps with excitement.

Running with the bulls is a great time for the bulls to get even :)

@shadowdetails these are incredible. Bravo. Bravo.

mazzagran said:

Some people criticize these kind of events but forgive a lot other artists work like world press photo awarded photos on war scenario. Oh wait! That is not brutality on animals, so that's ok.

I wouldnt equate war involving people with entirely unncessary cruelty to animals for some poeples entertainment .. but whatever floats your boat.

I'm going to have to agree with Maber here (I think I'm going to be sick), bull fighting is 100% atrocious behavior on the part of people. I support photographing it in all its gory details and showing people what the hell it is so that they can see what passes for entertainment. Some will get the real picture from this and minds can be changed.

Seeing the inside of a beef packing plant started me on the irreversible path to vegetarianism. Education goes a long way.

FinePixCamera said:

I'm going to have to agree with Maber here (I think I'm going to be sick), bull fighting is 100% atrocious behavior on the part of people.

Ha, I think I here the clippity clop of the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse....


I perosnally dont think its necessary to photograph, we know what happens, just join the 20th century and ban it.

Im not a vegetarian, do i need to justify it? I like the taste of meat and atleast its not breed to be ritually tortured whilst being looked on by 1000s of baying Neanderthals.

Food is food, but if someone gets their jollies watching animal being slowly tortured to death or doing that act then thats just plain wrong.
Any country not banning this does not deserve to be in a group of supposedly modern fellow countries.
"Tradition" is no excuse either, or we may as well all go live back in caves as that was popular aeons ago.

hmm.

But the human mouth has meat eating flesh tearing canines. We are meat eaters . Some like your self choose not to eat meat.

Many none meat eaters become anemic .

BTW the photos are good captures of the event that some might find too post processed but that is a personal preference. The art is the representation of what the photographer saw and his view of it in total or some smaller part.

Interesting images. :-)

what happens to the bulls after the run?

Jknights said:

@mattmaber I totally understand you point of view but have to agree and also disagree.

I have been to one bullfight locally where I live in Spain. I did not enjoy the spectacle and probably wont ever go again. The images captured here do not show the barbarism or even the willingness of humans to bate, torture or kill other humans or animals. The final cutting off of the bulls' ears is for me a disrespectful act that encapsulated the whole correda.
There are other types of bull fighting where the bull is not killed or maimed. I have not witnessed these and until I do I will not declaim them.

I have no desire to see a one sided contest. Man v. Bull maybe but there is no need to add in picador and other helpers to aid the matador provide a killing. That said I would say that there is an art present but it is not for me! Neither do I desire to force my opinion on others who might want to see it.

Regarding running with bulls I do think this is sport.
Around my town we have running with bulls and each year there are about 3-6 fatalities and many injuries to people but none to the bulls. :-)

There are many people who think running with bulls is equally barbaric. If that is the case then I am willing to provide those people with opportunities to run and see how long they survive!

I am a libertarian and dont believe in the nanny state or political correctness. A spade is a spade. I do agree that the correda is cruel but we need to educate why we think it so instead of stating it as fact rather than opinion!

Well put on all points @Jknights

As to vegetarians - If they want to eat only vegetables good luck to them so long as they don't take a holier than thou stance to preach to me as if you are better people for it because they are not. They have weaker stomachs (speaking in the vernacular here) for eating meat (perhaps once they've seen it butchered) but that does just prove they have weaker stomachs - not that they have any more feeling for the animals than I or anyone else. If it were not for meat eaters none of these animals would have been born would they? At least they saw some life - no thanks to vegetarians.
As for castigating those who attend or practice bullfighting - well it's all down to where you draw the line isn't it. I would not attend a bullfight but it's not for me to decide on the traditions of another country. You might not like bullfighting but you may enjoy eating veal (which I don't do because of the way it is produced - the UK has standards but most likely your veal comes from elsewhere). I won't eat Danish pork or bacon - again for the way the animals are kept.
What I said about vegetarians goes equally for those who think they can tell me I should not like bullfighting - it is just chance that I don't want to see a bullfight again (I saw one on a school journey would you believe), those people are not entitled to preach either - their line is drawn in a different place.
Recently there was an outcry in UK when some supermarket beef burghers were found to contain traces of horse-meat. The fuss was not about misrepresentation but about people unknowingly eating horse meat yet many of these people will have holidayed on the continent where the practice of serving horse meat as steak is fairly common - I know I've eaten it. In some countries dog flesh is eaten and whale meat (a staple of many foodstuffs for Brits in WWII), is still a delicacy. Many in UK would not dream of eating rabbit because of the "bunny" connotation yet I grew up on rabbit, pigeon and anything else my ex-gamekeeper father could bring home after the war and I still eat it now.
I believe in compassion in farming and I reserve the right to not attend nor to endorse what I consider to be a cruel sport - that's where I draw my line. I do not have the right to force anyone to toe my line or to antagonise those who draw their lines differently.
It is one thing to "educate" - preferably by example - but quite another to browbeat or force one's opinion as if it is the only sane option.
When I see rants like "It has no place in a modern, civilised society" - I see someone who is pandering to so-called "popular opinion" (which means those do-gooders who shout loudest so they must be right), not someone who is giving their own truly felt opinion. Righteous indignation and crocodile tears. If you believe it is wrong to bullfight then it is wrong because it is cruel and painful to the animal - it is not wrong because we live in "a modern civilised society"!
I'm surprised at you @mattmaber - you sound as despotic as FPC.
Vic