EVA FLORENTIA

EVA FLORENTIA
A Portrait of Defiance and Light

In my work, I portray the imagination and dreams of people. With artists, I try to manifest this through their own work. On the night of a full moon, in a small town in Andalucia, I photographed Eva. 

Eva became infatuated with the art of bullfighting as a young girl. She dreamt of becoming a matador, the highest achievement a bullfighter can attain, despite lacking their most typical traits. She was not a man and she was not from there. 

Nonetheless, a 17-year-old Eva fled her home in Florence, Italy, to Seville, and challenging tradition, she began to train in and learn about the art. She has now fought in dozens of bullfights but faced an array of barriers in pursuit of her dream. 

To take Eva’s portrait, I used the technique of light-painting and drew on the influence of the Baroque painter Velazquez, a native of Seville, and the literary work of Hemingway. The image is drawn from the many conversations I’ve had with Eva, my own inspirations and the ritual of bullfighting as an art.