‘Letting your children smoke at the Viehschau is a long-standing custom in Appenzell. Kids as young as six do it’
A girl smoking at a cattle show in Appenzell, Switzerland. Photograph: Jiří Makovec
Appenzell is a beautiful and very odd place. It’s a tiny rural town in the east of Switzerland, built in the 16th century. Here, all the cliches are true: the fondue and the yodelling, the pink cows and the magnificent ski slopes.
It’s also a place with very local habits. They still celebrate the new year according to the Julian calendar. And every October, they hold the Viehschau cattle show – a beauty show, but for cows. I first visited it in 2013: I followed a trail of fresh cow shit on the main road that caught my attention.
The farmers herd the cattle from the mountains, where they spend their summer, down the roads to the show (which is always right by the brewery). Then they stand in circles yodelling and ringing their cowbells. A panel of judges rank the cows – the most beautiful, the most efficient, the best breeders. This can take all day. The winning cows get a crown of paper flowers around their horns.
As soon as I started taking photographs, I noticed that many of the younger kids were passing around cigarettes, smoking one after another. They weren’t misbehaving; their parents were around and they all seemed comfortable with it. Letting your children smoke at the cattle show is a long-standing custom, I learnt. Kids as young as six do it.
I don’t know who the girl in the picture is – I never spoke to her. There was something so striking about her. I imagine she’s the daughter of a local farmer; the area is almost entirely dependent on agriculture and craft.
Appenzeller people are quite strong-minded. I have tried to ask why they let their children smoke, but no one has ever given me a clear explanation. I think most of the parents hope their kids will find it disgusting and won’t do it when they’re older. Or maybe they feel they should treat their children as equals on this special occasion. As far as I know, it only happens here, and only at that particular time of year. The adults grew up with the custom and now no one questions it.
For me, trying to understand different ways of living helps to open up my mind. I was not a good student when I was a kid, and I had lots of problems. Then I found that the teachers at art school were more open-minded, more accepting of me. I was 17 when I decided to be a photographer. From that point on, I’ve never questioned it, not even once.
Five years ago, I followed my girlfriend, who is an artist, here to Switzerland. I’d been living in New York, doing cleaning and painting jobs, and biking around with my Hasselblad trying to understand the city. Coming back to Europe, I was very happy to rediscover nature and small-town life – and I’ve learnt the importance of keeping traditions alive.
I see my work in the tradition of psychogeography. I’m interested in the situationists, a group of thinkers from the 60s who wrote about the importance of being able to wander and explore in a playful way. By always having my camera with me, I can capture unexpected things as I drift.
I saw the girl in the picture in the distance at the next year’s cattle show. She didn’t smoke any more. She was standing next to her younger friends, and every one of them was chain-smoking. But she just stood there, a little apart, in her own thoughts. She couldn’t have cared less about joining in.
Jiří Makovec CV
Born: Prague, Czech Republic, 1977.
Studied: The film and TV school of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.
High point: “Getting a grant for my project A, Ro, Spa, Brno, Lancy was very important for me.”
Low point: “I have had to take some odd jobs: cleaning a psychiatric hospital, taking care of a fashion photographer’s dog.”
Top tip: “You don’t have to try everything – especially not the rotten shark in Iceland.”
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