Like most kids in elementary school, I was thrilled by National Geographic's articles on Papua New Guinea.  PNG was virtually the last inhabited place on earth to be explored by Europeans, truly the last 'unknown'.  The pictures were so wild, stimulating my imagination like no other place pictured in this wonderful magazine.

As school years passed by, there was always a new article about PNG every so often, but never was this intriguing South Pacific island ever discussed in the classroom.  Sadly, the only information available was between the covers of National Geographic, picturing this amazing country, still barely touched by modern man.

PNG's history prior to arrival of European colonists is far from being pieced together.  Its extremely fragmented indigenous cultures left no written records and the marks they left on the landscape have nearly been completely erased, swallowed by PNG's tropical environment.

Going there was and will always be a highlight in my life.  Arriving from Sydney into Port Moresby was like being dropped into a world of lawlessness, falling backwards a century or two in time.  All of the few banks in town had been robbed during the week there.  The only place I found to eat, a fried chicken joint got robbed while I was waiting for my meal.  It took three days at the bank to exchange dollars for local currency, as they were still waiting for local currency to arrive.  Other than town streets, there were no roads going anywhere.  Anxious to board a plane heading into the Central Highlands. turned out to be nothing like I had ever seen before, nor ever since.  Finding food, basic health and self-defense would all be tested during the next two months following non-mapped footpaths into the wild tribal mountains of Papua New Guinea.

The following portraits of the people of Papua New Guinea are this journey.  Other than mountains, the people,  and their unique culture, there was basically nothing else.  No stores, no restaurants, no hotels, no medicine, no electricity, no running water, no toilets, and nowhere to hide.   Below each photo is a small running timeline of this journey, trying to describe the indescribable.  All portraits were taken in 1989.