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Shepherd in Yegen

Posted by Richard_Irwin (Belper, United Kingdom) on 20 February 2008 in Lifestyle & Culture and Portfolio.

A lot of people kept sheep in Yegen, and they were the most suitable animals for the steep terrain. The sheep could strip the weeds from an orchard in a morning.


All images come from a photostory I made in the village of Yegen in the Alpujarra region of southern Spain. All the images date from the end of 1989 and ran through into 1990, and my last visit to Yegen was in 1991, so I do not know how much has changed in the following years. I picked Yegen as my study after reading the book 'South from Granada', by the English author Gerald Brenan. He described his life in Yegen, and the colourful characters who lived there, many of whom were still alive in 1989, and featured in some of the photo's I took. Back in 1989, this region of Spain was fairly remote from the holiday home buying Northern Europeans, so retained most of its unique culture and ways The terrain is very steep, with desert like ravines at the lower slopes and snow capped peaks above.
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shepherd