Qafqaz is a literature graduate by education, and shepherd by choice. Every year at the end of spring, the 59-year-old gathers his flock, packs his family and belongings, and leaves his native Dmanisi, a village in Georgia’s southern region of Kvemo Kartli, to travel to the green pastures up on the mountains bordering Armenia. They will live on those hills from May until before the first snowfall, in October.

Qafqaz is just one of the dozens of ethnic Azerbaijanis, who constitute the majority of the population in the region, who have been living this seasonal journey, or transhumance, between the plains and the highlands, for generations.

Robust donkeys carry cooking pots, agile horses bear canvas bags, and sturdy Lada Nivas transport women and children. Together, humans and sheep climb those steep hills and settle in spacious meadows where the bina, large tents housing each family during the summer months, are erected.

Without electricity, gas, and running water, these shepherds get energy from the sun and food from what the animals and soil offer them — in a natural cycle that is passed on from one generation to the next.