Al Bello

One photographer that I have particularly been interested with as of late is Al Bello. There is a specific body of work that he had created that really got me interested into the realm of photojournalism. He had recently traveled to Puerto Rico to document cockfighting events, which a perfectly legal in this country. There was just so many different aspects of the fight that were covered that I would never have imagined. The single most powerful image in the collection was a closeup of one of the owners taking a pair of scissors to the roosters comb, cutting it clean off. The idea is that removing the comb from the roosters head increases its speed and vision, giving it an advantage in the fight. The feathers from the torso down to the feet are also removed, most likely for the same reason. To me, it is painful to understand that these animals can live and die purely for entertainment. The winner is praised and wounds are treated, while the loser dies, just to be thrown away as any other waste, lying in a grave of beer cans and cigarette butts.

Overall, the imagery within this body are just so colorful and diverse, they show every aspect of cockfighting that you could imagine, as a newcomer or expert. I really enjoyed the idea that I can get so much insight to the sport just by gazing through twenty images. Within a matter of moments my understanding of the sport and culture has risen to greater heights. These are the kinds of images I want to take. I feel I've been so stuck on shooting stock photos that I've steered away from using my creative eye and shot strictly to what could be seen in Sports Illustrated or a newspaper. I need to go back to where photography could be whatever I wanted it to be, I could shoot a subject and there was no telling how the final image would come out. I want to tell stories with my photos, not just capture one single moment in time, but have the ability for a sequence of images to give people the ability to create the narrative simply through my visual interpretations.