A selection from the series Iranian Shepherds

A traditional occupation, sheepherding may cease to exist in the not-too-distant future as more people from rural areas immigrate to big cities, more pastures go barren, factory farming becomes more popular, and more young people lose interest in the activity. Shepherds don’t work in groups, and when they take their flock grazing on remote pastures, rarely anyone visits them. They pack a little something to eat, and when the sun is about to set, they take their flock back to the pen before repeating the same things from the next morning. Their old companions are the sound of nature and their guardian dog, who first walks up and stares at you when you go near the flock and then waits for his owner’s reaction. Not for nothing did the ney labak, a Persian woodwind instrument, occasionally join the few things that Iranian shepherds traditionally carried: It was to take the edge off that isolation and loneliness with its music. Nowadays, however, you would see the instrument much less in the hands of shepherds and instead more in the stylish photos and symbolic representations of them. Shepherds tend to be introverted yet friendly people.