Since 2018, photographer Pie Aerts (@because.people.matter) has traveled to the Southern Chilean region of Magallanes to spend time with a dwindling group of men known as ‘puesteros’. Ranch workers who live in near solitude, tending livestock on vast remote ranches. The result is COIRÓN, a poetic long-form documentary project photographed across the span of 6 years, that explores the intimate world of some of these last ‘puesteros’. It investigates the duality of loneliness, how it can wound but also soften. In doing so, it became a visual meditation on stillness, human resilience and the inevitable passing of time. A portrait of men living at the edge of the world pushing through because they must, through silence, endurance and repetition. A portion of the project’s proceeds goes toward the Esperanza Housing Program in Magallanes. Photographs: @because.people.matter / Published by @gost_books | Milk Studios