In 1977 an abiding desire to photograph Old World peoples and cultures offered 23-year-old Victoria Ginn an escape from the wintery city of Melbourne, Australia, leading her by whatever means on offer (including accompanying homicidal maniacs gone troppo) into the remote, jungle swathed Highlands of Papua New Guinea. Here, in a hidden valley yet to fall victim to Christian missionaries hell-bent on ensnaring the souls of its Stone Age occupants, Victoria met and photographed a People whose ancient culture included forest magicians, sorcerers, dandies, bachelor-cult leaders and who were in the author’s words ‘living archetypes whose pure jungle spirit remained connected to the very birth of humankind’s spiritual consciousness’. A quirkily spiritual/psychological/poetic text, intended as a mirror to the photographs makes this culturally historic portrait relevant to today.
