2018 Photo Contest, Sports, 3rd prize

The Boys and the Bulls

Photographer

Nikolai Linares

20 February, 2017

Quique, Danni and Emilio, all 12, wear the outfits traditional for young trainee bullfighters, in Almería, Spain.

Bullfighting has long generated controversy and is declining in popularity, even in Spain, yet across the country boys still dream of stardom in the arena, and attend bullfighting schools to learn the requisite skills. At the Escuela Taurina Almería, a bullfighting school in Almería, Spain, boys aged 10 to 16 practice three times a week. The minimum age that boys may participate in a proper corrida, with a live bull, is 16. In February 2018, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child urged Spain to ban children from attending bull fights or bullfighting schools. Proponents say that bullfighting is part of Spain’s national fabric, an art form that encourages striving for the best.

About the photographer

Nikolai Linares

Born in 1983 in Elsinore, Denmark, Nikolai Linares lives and works as a photojournalist near Copenhagen.  Nikolai Linares graduated from the Danish School of Journal...

Technical information

Shutter Speed
1/4000
Focal length
70.0 mm
F-Stop
2.8
ISO
500

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