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Photographs
by Stephen Dupont & Paul Blackmore
with films by Bob Connolly & Robin
Anderson
Papua New Guinea. A land of striking beauty,
mountain ranges, lush rainforests and some of the
most spectacular coastlines on earth. A land of
eight hundred tribes and languages. A land where
security is the country's biggest growth industry.
A land that has long been represented as a risky
place to holiday and do business.
As the eve of Papua New Guinea's 30th anniversary
of independence from Australia approaches, the
Australian Centre for Photography presents
PNG, an exhibition of contrast and
contradiction that challenges just how much we know
about our nearest neighbours. The exhibition brings
together three extraordinary bodies of work by
Australian documentary photographers Paul Blackmore
and Stephen Dupont, and academy award nominated
filmmaking duo Bob Connolly and Robin Anderson. The
exhibition also engages with the interconnected
fields of reportage, photojournalism, documentary
photography and documentary filmmaking.
Paul
Blackmore
Images of Papua New Guinea, 2004
Port Moresby was recently ranked the worst place to
live in the Economist's survey of 130 of
the world's capital cities, yet people continue to
build and live their lives in this community of
extremes. Photographer, Paul Blackmore has explored
the broad social and cultural terrain of Papua New
Guinea, documenting high-points such as the
celebratory Goroka Festival, a 'Sing Sing' that
attracts tourists and thousands of tribal
participants, as well as taking his camera to
hospital wards where the number of HIV infected is
on the rise. Blackmore traveled to Papua New Guinea
at the time of it's 29th Anniversary of
independence from Australia - at the same time as
the Australian government deployed 200 police to
the region as part of a five-year, billion-dollar
aid program. His work engages with the Papua New
Guinean people at work and play, as well as coping
with the unnatural deaths of loved-ones and
escalating gang violence and crime that draws the
world's media attention.
Paul Blackmore would like to acknowledge the
sponsorship of Screen.
Paul Blackmore is represented by Stills Gallery,
Sydney and Rapho, Paris.
Stephen
Dupont
Stephen Dupont infiltrated a 'Raskol' community in
an attempt to document the individuals behind the
facelessness of gang warfare. His Raskol
series presents formal portraits of the 'Kips
Kaboni' or 'Red Devils', Papua New Guinea's longest
established Raskol group. By building trust over
several visits, Dupont was able to set-up a
makeshift studio in which to photograph his
subjects - mostly young, unemployed adults and
teenagers - who orchestrate raids, car-jackings and
robberies as a means of survival. Raskols
focuses on Papua New Guinean youth in crisis - men
that have turned to crime, violence and anarchy in
a bid to protect the future of themselves and their
communities.
The resulting photographs in the Raskols
series are luscious, fragile portraits made using a
new printing process. The Giclee prints are made
using the da Vinci system which renders
extremely archival images with the best tonal range
of any pigment print currently available. The
prints are made on high quality, acid-free art
paper. This is the first time this process has been
used in an exhibition.
Stephen Dupont would like to acknowledge the
sponsorship of Giclee Australia and Polaroid.
Stephen Dupont is represented by Contact Press
Images, New York.
Bob
Connolly and Robin
Anderson
First Contact, 1984
(54mins)
Joe Leahy's Neighbours, 1989 (90
mins)
Black Harvest,1992 (90 mins)
Please
consult the screening schedule for times and dates
of screenings.
The three feature-length films by Bob Connolly and
Robin Anderson investigate the historical, social
and economic factors facing the first peoples of
Papua New Guinea and the conflicting values of
tribalism and capitalism. In First Contact
we are able to witness the Leahy brother's
unexpected confrontation with thousands of Papua
New Guinean's from original footage shot in 1930.
In this documentary, made over fifty years later,
Connelly and Anderson find that some original
participants are still alive and vividly recall
their life-changing experience. The Papuans tell
how they thought the white men were their
ancestors, bleached by the sun and returned from
the dead. When shown their younger, innocent selves
in the found footage, they recall the darker side
of their relationship with these mysterious beings
with devastating weapons. In Joe Leahy's
Neighbours and Black Harvest, Connolly
and Anderson follow the trials and tribulations of
Joe Leahy, the mixed-race son of Australian
explorer Michael Leahy and his interactions with
the Ganiga people, whose tribal lands border his
coffee plantation. Throughout the two films, Leahy
struggles as he treads a fine line between business
growth and exploitation.
Bob Connolly and Robin Anderson's films are
available through Arundel Productions, Sydney.
Image Credits:
• Stephen Dupont from Raskols
2004
• Paul Blackmore, Images of Papua
New Guinea, 2004
• Stephen Dupont, untitled, from
the series Raskols, 2004
• Stephen Dupont, untitled, from
the series Raskols, 2004
• Robin Anderson Bob Connolly with
Joseph Madang during the filming of Black
Harvest
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