Saudade - a deep emotional state of melancholic longing characteristic of the Portuguese temperament for a person or thing that is absent, and the acknowledged impossibility of attaining what is longed for.

Saudade explores the lives of Portuguese people residing in agricultural towns which are intertwined with the Portuguese bloodless bullfighting community in California's Central Valley.

Bullfights are held as far south as Artesia in Los Angeles county.

This series includes portraits inspired by Flemish paintings of the 15- 17th centuries. The Flemish immigrated to the Azores (islands off the coast of Portugal) in the 15th century. Since there was such a large Flemish settlement, the Azores were known as the Flemish Islands. The Portuguese diaspora of California mainly came from this Portuguese archipelago. There has always been a class system in Portuguese bullfighting, with "cavaleiros" fighting on horseback, representing nobility, and "forcados" representing the working class cowboy. With these portraits I am aiming to put the different types of bullfighters on a level field, photographing them all in a similar way while contrasting their differences.