OPENDOORS // Michael Abril

Still legal in the country despite the ban request from animal rights activists, this activity remains popular among a small percentage of the local population, belongs mostly to rural culture. Because of the profitable nature of this activity, mafias, alcohol and fights have been always mixed with it in some way.  Because of this, at least in the big cities, the coq fight become an underground and risky business. 

For many people in Columbia coq fighting is still an unknown and somewhat secret activity. I wanted to expose this from my photographic point of view, as a witness, without wanting to impose a specific message to viewers.  I wanted to show it as it is, in its beauty and cruelty, its paraphernalia and rituals, leaving to people to draw their own conclusions.  

On the other hand, I was very aware of the difficulty and the risks in going to these places to take photos. It is an underground activity where the gamblers have important amounts of money at stake, as a result there are many spectators and people involved that don't like being photographed (especially some with social, political or economical notoriety, or even in some cases, related to mafias, criminal organizations and activities). There is something that thrilled me and fascinated me about the idea of photographing what was happening in within these arenas and capturing a little bit of that through my photographs.

Note:  In October 2013, the photographer (Michael Abril) was awarded with the GRAND PRIX LUX 2013 (Qc, Canada) in the “Reportage-travel-tourism” category with five images from this photo-series.