Last Transhumance
Transhumance is the movement of livestock by shepherds in autumn and spring, along hundreds of miles between mountain and lowland pastures in order to feed and protect their herds.
“The Last Transhumance” describes in photography and film the extinction of a millennial way of life. It is an artistic, ethnographic and sociological project totaling 15 years, 6 countries (Romania, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Albania, Wales), more than 50,000 km traveled, 100,000 photos, 100 hours of footage and 100 hours audio recordings.
Some 10.000 years ago, in the Middle East, man first domesticated sheep, and took them ‘on the road.’ That’s what shepherds call transhumance. Their journey measures time and space with tools we have forgotten. People and herds swing between plains and mountains, setting in motion a mechanism that has ticked for thousands of years yet is about to stand still. The transhumance clock stops each time a family of shepherds choose to no longer take to the road. Nevertheless, it keeps ticking through the stubbornness of those who continue to sleep among their sheep under the clear sky – the remaining few who still live under the stars. “The Last Transhumance” tells their story.