Rather than basking in the spotlight after winning the coveted Trophee de la Mode award for Best Photographer last year, Ruven Afanador has been quietly working in the dark room, putting the finishing touches on his debut book of photographs, Torero (Edition Stemmle). Due out in October, this impressive coffee table addition offers a lyrical portrayal of matadors and their killing ways, a tour de force that has taken him several years and numerous trips to Spain and Latin America to complete.

Deeply personal and at times pointedly homoerotic, the photographs—all in laconic black and white detail—have their roots in Afanador's recollections of a growing up in a small town just north of Bogotá, Colombia. It was here that his simultaneous obsessions with Irving Penn and beauty pageants flourished, a hybrid of influences that still informs his work. It's an idol worship that Afanador says was completely indulged when he photographed Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the famed naive realist author, who is regarded as a national treasure in Colombia. In an auspicious photo session arranged by Joan Juliet Buck, former Editor-in-Chief of Paris Vogue, the conversation between the two visionaries veered to bullfighting and inspired in Afanador a fascination for the secret society of men with tradition-soaked, embroidered suits and the adoration of everyone. Here, Afanador explains to Lee Carter how he has slain the beasts in his chosen arena.