Paul Hutchinson

This is the first picture I ever got published. I like it because it reminds me of how my thinking worked back then. How everything has changed since, but, then again, how nothing has.

I was spending a year abroad in Spain, and I had only really just started with photography. Some people I knew back home in Berlin were running a magazine and asked me if I wanted to contribute something, something from outside, as I was living abroad and all. So I submitted this picture. I was super excited but tried to play it cool, pretending that this was just another request out of many.

I made my own prints back then. I get to see the only remaining one of this picture whenever I go visit one of my best mates. He has it hanging in his hallway. The print is pretty torn and washed out and sometimes I still wonder why he would even bother putting it up.

When I look at this picture I don’t see a man facing a bull, I see myself. I see time passing, I see both past and present. How I started to wonder about this strange world we live in, how I still do so today. I think this is the power of images — some just stand out and want to form a connection with you, whether you like it or not. I hope everyone has a picture like that. And someone who would hang it up in their hallway for them.