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Head Hunting Revisited: Photographs of Samoa and Papua New Guinea
Michele Benoy-Westmorland and Karen Huntt November 15, 2008 to June, 2009
posted Saturday November 1, 2008
by SWG Webmaster

In the Spring of 2005, Michele Benoy-Westmorland, travel photographer and diver, and Karen Huntt, a documentary photographer and photo editor, carried the SWG flag to Papua New Guinea and The Solomon Islands, for their project "Headhunt Revisited," inspired by the journey of former SWG member Caroline Mytinger to the region in 1926. Their goal was to document the current conditions of cultures in these areas, using Mytinger's travels as a guide. Mytinger was a professional portrait painter, as well as a Gibson Girl model. She and her companion, Margaret Warner spent four years in the islands painting portraits of the inhabitants in an effort to document the cultural changes that had taken place. Westmorland and Huntt spent two months photographing and filming the people and their traditions, and discovered descendants of Mytinger's portrait subjects. The Smithsonian Magazine published a ten-page article about Mytinger and the Headhunt project, "A Gibson Girl in New Guinea," in April 2006. They reported on their experiences at SWG headquarters in November, 2006.
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