Malcolm Kirk | Man as Art

posted by Olivia Savage November 19, 2014

Previous assistant to Irvine Penn, Kirk’s first expedition to Papa New Guinea in 1967 was sponsored by National Geographic, and proved to be the beginning of a love affair with the country to which he returned repeatedly over the next 13 years, returning each time with more and more incredibly beautiful photographs of the tribe’s people he encountered. The resulting book, ‘Man As Art: New Guinea’, documents the stunning body art, tribal decoration, coloured masks and feather headdresses the people had devised, and is one of the most beautiful portraiture studies in photography. The iconic photographers work should be re-appreciated, as relevant and arresting today as it was 40 years ago.