Writer and Photographer Babs Perkins is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this documentary photography. These images are from her project ‘Cheese Stories – Serbia‘. To see Babs’ galleries click on any image.
Around the world, cheese is disappearing and going extinct. According to the Fromages de Terroirs Association (an authority on traditional French cheeses) 50 have disappeared in the last 30 years, in France. France! Where they really care about cheese. Imagine for a moment what’s happening in other places. Places where there isn’t an internationally known and respected food culture. Places where circumstance or the financial situation has not been so kind. Places with history and tradition but no voice.
One such place is Serbia
These images are part of a larger project creating a visual chronicle of the farmers, shepherds and cheese makers of the Western Balkans, (specifically the countries that made up the former Yugoslavia) in the context of their natural environment. But, the true nature of this effort is not simply the documentation of these people, places and things but rather in telling the story of a disappearing time and place while hopefully encouraging recognition and perhaps development of tools to help save it.