Rarity 18.4/100 · Collector 0/100 · Deal 2/100 · Listings: 1 · Avg price: $249.00 · Min price: $249.00

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Published by Edition Stemmle in 2001, Ruvén Afanador’s *Torero* is a portrait-led study of young matadors from Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Spain. Its subject is not bullfighting as an anonymous public spectacle, but the torero as a constructed figure: an individual shaped by training, costume, tradition, and the expectations attached to a highly codified role.

The book’s geographic range is significant. By bringing together sitters from four countries, Afanador places a shared bullfighting culture across distinct national settings rather than treating Spain as its sole point of reference. The emphasis on young practitioners also directs attention toward inheritance—how an old ceremonial form is assumed, performed, and carried forward by a new generation. Portraiture provides the central means of inquiry, allowing identity and role to remain in productive tension.

*Torero* was Afanador’s first published book. Across 204 pages, the project gives sustained form to a tightly defined body of work rather than presenting a broad career survey. The substantial hardcover volume, approximately 34 × 30 centimetres, offers a scale suited to extended viewing and to the visual presence of the subjects. Published in English, this first edition establishes the project in its original book form and marks an early point in the photographer’s bibliography.

For collectors, the book merits attention on clearly documented artistic and historical grounds: it is Afanador’s debut monograph, a focused treatment of a culturally charged subject, and a cross-national record of matadors at the beginning of their careers. Its importance lies less in offering a comprehensive account of bullfighting than in the precision of its premise. Afanador isolates the human figure within an inherited ritual and uses the photobook to examine how tradition is embodied by particular people.