La Tria: Cowboys of the Catalan Pyrenees
For four months, from June to September, 200 cows live in the high mountain pastures of Llessui (Pallars Sobirà, Catalunya),
surrounded by 4,000 hectares of land where the grass is abundant and fresh.
Albert Baqueró Cereza (bottom right), a twenty-seven-year-old cowboy makes his debut this year as the cowboy in charge
of the cows on this mountain range.
At the beginning of October, the herdsmen return to gather the herds from the high mountains. More than half are collected
directly by the owners, who take them to the farms. The other five hundred and fifty cows are led down in a collective effort
of the cowboys and their friends to a parking lot of the old ski slopes of Llessui, where the farmers make the choice (la tria)
and load their cows on trucks back to their land.
These photos were made between October 5 to 6, accompanying the cowboys in this process called La Tria (the selection).