"Romero smiled. The bull wanted it again, and Romero's cape filled again, this time on the other side. Each time he let the bull pass so close that the man and the bull and the cape that filled and pivoted ahead of the bull were all one sharply etched mass. It was all so slow and so controlled. It was as though he were rocking the bull to sleep. He made four veronicas like that, and finished with a half - veronica that turned his back on the bull and came away toward the applause, his hand on his hip, his cape on his arm, and the bull watching his back going away."

As a cultural product, this game with the erotic body movements of the torero and his near death, shows a mixture of thrill and danger. Death is certain for the bull. People can not help but be moved by its death, it is out in the open for everyone to see.
I took these photographs of the Novillada at 10 o clock at night in the old roman arena in Arles in the South of France. Unlike in Fiesta, where these young men stage their ritual of beauty, danger and mastering death in bright sunlight to filled arenas, it takes place at night by floodlight. The scanty audience consists of breeders and experts in the field, parents and friends. It is the first public match with a live bull for the young men. If they get injured, they have to overcome their fear and distress. With the help of experienced matadores they re-position themselves in the ritual of the fight with cape, rapier and dagger. If they don't do it, it is the end of their career. The end of a dream of a life as a famous torero with success, money and property.
These photos show something of this symbiosis of eros and death through the merging of out-of -focus elements in the pictures.