Passes: The Art of the Bullfight Seduction, Deception, Illusion and Truth

New York, New York, U.S.A.: Rizzoli Intl Pubns, 2001. Book. New. Pictorial Boards. First Edition. Oblong 4to.. First edition. Oblong 4to., 191 pp. Illustrated throughout in color. Translucent band covering boards as issued. New. "To transmute the threatening and dangerous existence of a beast into something as gossamer as a dancer's veil is the greatest marvel of bullfighting," according to Manuel Chaves Nogales. In certain cultures, this ancient ritual illustrates multilayered relationships between intelligence and brute strength, certainty and doubt, man and nature, reality and deception. In this elegant oversized album, Ricardo Sanchez's swirling motion photographs reflect the ballet of maneuvers known as passes, tracing the lines and forms of the bull and the bullfighter not in sharp frozen moments but in movement and energy. Rosa Olivares comments on Sanchez's photography as an art form, and bullfight critic Jose Luis Ramon explains in detail how the passes are performed and what they mean in the bullring-and how these performances are so deeply rooted in the culture that the terms of the fight pervade the language..