David Gillison

David Gillison, born and educated in Australia, is a member of a family of journalists, writers, and historians. His studies in Japan and England -- in painting, pottery, print-making and photography -- led him ultimately to New York, where he teaches three-dimensional computer imaging and drawing toon meer at Lehman College of the City University. In 1973, accompanied by his anthropologist wife and six-year-old daughter, he set out for New Guinea to explore the sources of imagery in village art and later to photograph and study the birds of paradise. Living for nearly two years among the Gimi people of Crater Mountain in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea, Gillison began a three-decade-long relationship, returning almost every year to photograph the Gimi, their daily life and rituals, and the birds and animals of the rainforest. He was instrumental in setting up a research and conservation group that today -- thanks to the generous understanding and cooperation of the local people and the continuing support of the Wildlife Conservation Society -- protects some 3,000 square kilometers of natural habitat toon minder