Bored Panda reached out to Ivo Danchev, a Siena Awards finalist, whose image 'Shepherd with Herd' is nominated in this year’s People category. We wondered what inspired the photographer to capture this particular moment of the shepherd Nikola with his Karakachan sheep, and what message he hoped to convey through this picture. Ivo shared with us: “Back in 2013, I was working for Slow Food magazine in the western Balkan mountains of Serbia, near the border with Bulgaria. My job was to document one of the very last herds of Karakachan sheep and there was Nikola - their shepherd. After having a friendly conversation with him I could tell he had great love and care for his animals. His stories inspired me to make a portrait of him and his herd that captures his relationship and the protection he was for that bunch of brown survivors.”

Asked how he felt while photographing this scene, the Siena Awards finalist said: “I was charmed by the beauty of my characters, both man and animals, and got super excited to be able to look at them and photograph them from above. It was the perfect angle. I wanted the viewers to fall in love with the characters – just as strong as I felt at that very moment.”

Next, Ivo told us what he learned about the cultural and historical significance of traditional Karakachan life through his project: “In the past, the Karakachan used to practice transhumance and a semi-nomadic lifestyle. They were migrating from the Egean Sea to the Black Sea following the high mountain pastures so their numerous sheep herds could graze. In the 1960s the communist party decided to take their herds and put them into blocks of flats.

At that time, the military blocked the mountain passes and forced them to obey and give away their animals to slaughter. That was a time of great sorrow and loss of traditional lifestyle. They told me in the beginning they used to sleep on the balconies as the rooms felt like prison. The small brown sheep accommodated to harsh mountains weren’t producing enough milk compared to the lowland breeds and their numbers were decreased until, in the beginning of the 21st century, there were only few animals surviving in some remote areas.

Today, after about 20 years of hard work of devoted people like Nikola, there are several new herds and hope that the breed could be saved as part of the world's biodiversity.”

Lastly, we were curious about what future projects the photographer is particularly excited about exploring. Danchev told us: “Shepherds and animals have always been some of my favorite subjects. For the past 6 years, I have been working on a long-term book project on the extremely rich heritage of masked traditions of Bulgaria, and again it is a story of the ancient bond between man and animals. It seems to be my favorite story and I just can’t let it go.”