Jost Franko: Shepherds

Jošt Franko is a young documentary photographer born in Slovenia in 1993. His work is mostly focused on long-term projects exploring domestic and international social issues, and his themes often examine the relationship between man and land in the modern world.

Slovenia – 

The shepherd community that has existed for more than 500 years on Velika planina in Slovenia is a disappearing tradition.

The settlement is located only an hour drive from the capital city, but there, at 1600 meters above sea level, the everyday life begins at dawn and finishes at sundown. Around 20 families move to the mountains during the summer months to avoid buying fodder for their cattle in the valley. This way of life has remained more or less the same for the last couple of hundred years but will most likely disappear within a generation when modernization will hit even the most remote parts of Slovenia. In four years of documenting the community, 3 families have stopped goading the cattle to the mountains and are not living on the mountains during the season anymore. The culture and community is literally disappearing in front of our eyes.

In the current economic situation, most shepherds cannot survive only on farming, so they do other jobs in the valley during weekdays. The settlement is therefore mostly occupied by older members of the families and their grandchildren, who spend their summer vacations helping them.

 

Written & Photography by – Jost Franko 

Related Posts

Tommaso Tanini: “H. said he loved us” – An Oppressive Investigation

Italy –  Following three years of travels and investigations in Germany, published by Discipula Editions Photography feature – Tommaso Tanini’s ...

Rafal Milach: The Winners

Belarus –  ‘The Winners’ published by GOST, is dedicated to winners of various state and local competitions held between 2010-2013 ...

Lucie Foundation: International Photography Awards 2014 Announced

USA – The Lucie Awards presents the International Photography Awards (IPA) competition, a sister effort of the Lucie Foundation, and has ...

Eamonn Doyle: “i”

Ireland –   I started photographing in and around Dublin city centre in the late 1980s, but I took something ...

Petra Stavast: ‘Ramya’ – Beautifully Archiving Your Landlady for 14 years

Netherlands –  Ramya, long-term personal project converted into a photobook by Dutch photographer Petra Stavast, made over a period of 14 years, ...

Kate Nolan: Neither

Ireland –  Neither is an exploration into the dreams and fears of young women in Kaliningrad – an isolated Russian region ...

Vlad Krasnoshchok & Sergiy Lebedynskyy: “Euromaidan” – Rapidly Changing Ukrainian Chronicles

Ukraine –  “On the 19th of January, 2014 a peaceful protest of Ukrainian Euromaidans on the Hrushevskyi Street in Kiev ...

Establishment Earthquaker : Shahidul Alam

Bangladesh –  Emaho got into a free-wheeling tête-à-tête with the legendary award-winning Bangladeshi photographer, Shahidul Alam to pry beyond his ...

Celebrating Emerging Greek Photography: Nikolas Ventourakis – ‘Defining Cyprus’s Borderlands’

Greece –  ‘Defining Lines – Borderlands’ is a project focused on the areas in and around the Western Sovereign Base ...