Gianni Bodini was born in 1948 in Laas. Journalist and photographer, author of numerous reports and books that mainly highlight certain aspects of Alpine culture, such as: Rites and traditions in South Tyrol, Ancient irrigation systems in the Alps, Food traditions in the Alps, Archaeology of the Alps…

For some years he has sporadically followed the movements of herds in various mountain regions, but for more than 50 years he has regularly followed the sheep and shepherds from the Vinschgau to the summer pastures in the Ötztal. His images and texts do not only focus on the sheep, the undisputed protagonists of this ancient and spectacular event, but also report the stories told by the shepherds, recording the changes in the landscape also due to the retreat of the glaciers. He also collects documents and historical testimonies found in ancient archival texts, as well as iconographic material related to the theme of pastoralism.

His curiosity and passion for the Alpine agricultural and pastoral world feed his insatiable thirst for knowledge and drive him to spend whole days outdoors observing the behavior of animals and shepherds at high altitudes, but they also motivate him to lock himself in libraries and archives to delve into the past.