George Steinmetz

These photos were taken in 1993 as part of a story for National Geographic Magazine about the Indonesian Province of Irian Jaya, which occupies the western half of the island of New Guinea. The province has since been divided and renamed Papua, Highland Papua, South Papua, Southwest Papua, and West Papua. The native population is predominantly Melanesian on an island with over 700 distinct languages. The geography varies from tropical swampland to glaciated peaks, including Pancake Jaya, or Carstensz Pyramid, the highest point in the Australasian continent, at 16,024 ft. The majority of the land is a primary tropical forest.