Asmat

The Asmat means „People of the trees“ and lives in Papua island

They are an ethnic group whose population lives in the south-west of the island of Papua. The ancestral spirits play an important role in the ancestor cult of Asmat, celebrating numerous rituals to pay homage to them.

Headhunters and human cannibals wasn’t expected in all tribes of the region in the 50’s and 60’s, but the environment is till today partly dangerous and unexplored, because the nature.

In the late 1960s it ceased to be part of New Guinea and has since passed into Indonesian hands.

A web showcase of 40 pictures of Wim’s photo collection

Wim used his personal Voigtländer Vito B camera during his 3-year stay in former New Guinea to photograph the Casuarina Coast, the Asmat of Pirimapun and more environments in the depths of the jungle. The complete collection contains more than 250 black & white as colour pictures.

Over the section of About, you can inform about all camera details in more depth.

 

The disappearence of Nelson Rockefeller son in New Guinea

Michael Rockefeller belonged in his first expedition to New Guniea to the Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology producing Dead Birds, where he was sound recordist and photograper. The highlander ethnic group of the Dani´s where filmed and studied in this ocasion.

After that, Michael wanted to continue on a second expedition to the Asmat, practically alone, without his production team, because he was deeply fascinated by the primitive art of that region. A couple of weeks later he disappeared in the Arafura sea and the seek for him began.