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In late 1800s, a quiet man with a camera wandered the windswept plains of southwestern #France. His name was Félix Arnaudin, and what he captured was a way of life already fading into memory.
Among his most haunting images were the #shepherds of the Landes, perched on towering wooden stilts known as échasses. Dressed in thick wool cloaks and wide-brimmed hats, these men weren’t performers or curiosities—they were survivors of the bog. #History
Their stilts lifted them above the wet, uneven ground, allowing them to watch their flocks and travel long distances across the sodden heather.
Through Arnaudin’s lens, these shepherds appear as tall, ghostly silhouettes on the flat horizon—figures shaped by wind, mud, and patience. Their solitude is almost sacred. Their balance, a quiet defiance against the elements.
But progress was coming. Wetlands were drained. Pine forests were planted. Roads were paved. The stilts were lowered, then lost
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