Photoessay: Ben Bohane's The Black Islands
September, 2006
As a photographer and writer, Ben Bohane engages in a research methodology known as participatory action research (PAR) that aspires to engage all parties, observers and ‘subjects’ alike in a power-sharing dynamic through informed consent—a far cry from the stereotype of photojournalist as shoot-and-run ambulance chaser, or cool and disconnected observer.
—Bec Dean, Curator, Australian Centre for Photography
Read The Black Islands article here | All images © Ben Bohane
 1. West Papua: An OPM guerrilla with cassowary headdress during an independence flag-raising ceremony in the Highlands, 1995. © Ben Bohane |
 2. West Papua: A sanguma (spirit) man in the Highlands welcomes Ben Bohane to his Nduga village. © Ben Bohane |
 3. West Papua: Women dance and welcome OPM guerrillas into their Nduga village in the Highlands. © Ben Bohane |
 4. West Papua: A Dani man walks through Wamena against a backdrop of town life and mosque. © Ben Bohane |
 5. West Papua: An OPM guerrilla from Central Command in the Highlands. © Ben Bohane |
 6. West Papua: An OPM guerrilla from Central Command in the Highlands above Freeport mine. © Ben Bohane |
 7. West Papua: OPM guerrillas from Central Command perform a traditional war dance in teeming rain. © Ben Bohane |
 8. West Papua: Nduga tribesmen prepare a pig feast during an OPM rally in Central Command. © Ben Bohane |
 9. Bougainville: BRA guerrillas pose with a fleet of destroyed 200 tonne dump trucks at Panguna mine. © Ben Bohane |
 10. Bougainville: BRA leader Francis Ona (in bush hat and holding a samurai sword) and some of his men at Guava village, 1994. © Ben Bohane |
 11. Bougainville: BRA guerrilla at the destroyed Panguna mine. © Ben Bohane |
 12. Bougainville: PNG Defence Force and Resistance forces respond to a grenade explosion while on patrol. The use of sorcery was an important but unreported element of the war, 1997. © Ben Bohane |
 13. Papua New Guinea: A raskol from the Kips Kaboni gang in his Port Moresby hideout, 2005. © Ben Bohane |
 14. Asia-Pacific Border: Canoes at dusk on the Fly River, which separates Papua New Guinea from the Indonesian-ruled province of Papua, 1997. © Ben Bohane |
