A visit home

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During bad weather spells up on the mountain pastures, there is little left to do other than stay put in the old houses until the weather changes. Verner Soler

A partial view of the Lugnez Valley. Verner Soler

The living room of this old house up on a mountain pasture has hosted 300 years worth of conversation, much of it about the weather. Verner Soler

Architectural detail of a house in Vrin. Verner Soler

Mother reads while sitting on the 'pügna' - the soapstone oven. Verner Soler

A view of Pardatsch, the summer pastures. Verner Soler

A manure heap between buildings. Verner Soler

A 'canastra' is a handmade basket used in the old days to carry hay from the upper level of the barn to the animals beneath. Verner Soler

Most scarecrows vanished with the grain fields some 40 years ago. Nowadays, only a handful of farmers still have potato plots, because people usually buy them from the store. Verner Soler

My father taking a well-deserved nap during grass cutting. Verner Soler

Landscape around Vrin. Verner Soler

Quite a few people own goats. In summer they are out in the pastures, but in winter they stay in the village. Verner Soler

Snowed in. Verner Soler

The mountain pasture is a place higher up in the mountains, above the village, where farmers tend to their cattle in the spring and fall. This particular area was inhabited year round until the early 1700s, when it ceased to be a village, and became just a 'Maiensäss'. Verner Soler

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Los Angeles photographer Verner Soler returns to Vrin, Graubünden, the village of his childhood.

Verner Soler makes a series of trips back to Vrin and rediscovers the raw beauty of its landscape. It also gave him an outside perspective of the many changes underway. Soler felt compelled to record some of the vestiges of the old ways of life before they vanished entirely.