Thirty years in Papua New Guinea

What I do for your production

The part that decides whether a shoot happens

Through Papua New Guinea Fixer, I prepare and run shoots in one of the most logistically demanding countries in the world: filming permits and government authorisations, visas, charter flights, ground transport, remote camp set-up, freight and security.

And above all, the negotiation of access and consent with the communities we film. I speak Tok Pisin, so interviews and daily relations happen directly, with no interpreter standing between the crew and the people in front of the camera.

Where

The whole country, not one corner of it

I work with a network of local partners built over three decades. I have filmed and photographed in the Highlands, along the Sepik, in the Gulf, Madang, Morobe, Milne Bay, the Trobriand Islands, New Ireland, New Britain, Bougainville, Central Province and Port Moresby — and in each of them I have friends I have known for years.

Explore the regions →

Background

Photographer, author, director

In 1994 I spent six months at the Faculty of Creative Arts of the University of Papua New Guinea in Port Moresby, living among Papuan students — the friendships made there are the origin of everything since.

I joined Grands Reportages at twenty-three and stayed twenty years as staff photographer, published in National Geographic, Géo, Paris Match and Le Figaro Magazine. I have written eighteen books on the country. My documentary Frères des arbres, released internationally as Mundiya Kepanga, the Voice of the Forest, received fifteen international awards.

“After thirty years I can tell you in one phone call whether an idea is feasible, what it will really cost, which season it needs, and which communities will welcome it. That conversation usually saves more than my fee.”