Premiere Exhibiton
Australian Centre for Photography (ACP)
Sydney, April 8 - May 22, 2005

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.

On the eve of Papua New Guinea’s 30th anniversary of independence from Australia, the Australian Centre for Photography presents PNG, an exhibition of contrast and contradiction that challenges just how much we know about our nearest neighbours.

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.