‘Papua New Guinea: A Crow’s Eye View’

Sequim Gazette staff

Linda Crow will share a photographic record of her journey to Papua New Guinea in a free slide presentation at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 28, at the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center, 1203 E. Lauridsen Blvd.

“It’s the most fascinating place I have ever experienced,” said Crow, speaking of Papua New Guinea as one of the most diverse and exotic countries on Earth, where she spent two weeks in May.

One of the world’s least explored regions, New Guinea encompasses 850 indigenous languages and at least as many traditional societies. It is also one of the most rural, with only 18 percent out of a population of just under

7 million living in urban centers, and many new species of plants and animals still being discovered in its dense jungles.

Crow’s interest in photographing traditional cultures and in collecting masks drew her to the Sepik River region, long known for its tribal art. Traveling from the capital city, Port Moresby, to the highlands, then to the Sepik River and finally to the coastal area, her photos take you into the midst of aboriginal peoples who are keeping alive ancient rituals and aesthetics.

Crow has a knack for gaining the trust of her subjects, allowing her to make probing and unaffected portraits of elders and children, celebrants and musers. The brilliantly painted faces and bodies of the Sing-Sing – the tribal competitions enacted with costumes, music and dance – are set against candid impressions of everyday life.

A selection of prints is on view at Karon’s Framing, Port Angeles, through mid-November.

‘Papua New Guinea: A Crow’s Eye View’

Free slide presentation by photographer Linda Crow 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 28

Port Angeles

Fine Arts Center,

1203 E. Lauridsen Blvd.