Portraits from the Yupno valley

In the summer of 2009, I joined a research trip to Papua New Guinea. Our destination was the Yupno valley, a high nook in the Finisterre Range, one of countless similar nooks in the country's remote, rumpled interior. The trip was jointly led by Jürg Wassmann, an anthropologist at the University of Heidelberg, and Rafael Núñez, my advisor in the Department of Cognitive Science at UCSD, where I was getting my PhD. I bought my first digital SLR for the trip. Here are some of the portraits I took with it.

(all images © Kensy Cooperrider)

Men socializing at the fireplace. Gua, 2009.

Boys with a home-made model airplane. Gua, 2009.

Two men at fireside. Gua, 2009.

A man explains a timeline of Yupno history, recently scratched into the dirt. Gua, 2009.

Children stoke a fire at our residence. Gua, 2009.

Boys on a hillside in the village center, with a netbag of sweet potatoes. Gua, 2009.

The elementary school teacher at his desk. Gua, 2009.

Boy resting on a railing outside our residence. Gua, 2009.

Men gather around the grass airstrip, waiting for a plane to come in. Teptep, 2009.