When Seattle-based photographers Michele Westmorland and Karen Huntt set foot in Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea, they noticed something strange.

"This white dog ran past me, looking at first like he was covered in blood," says Huntt. "I was a bit alarmed and turned to walk after him when it dawned on me that the reason he had big red stains all over him was from people spitting betel-nut juice all over him. People weren't spitting at him on purpose — there's just so much spitting going on that the poor hound had crossed paths with a few too many chewers."

This first encounter with copious amounts...

"Headhunt Revisited," the portraiture project of Michele Westmorland and Karen Huntt Mason, was the subject of Smithsonian magazine's April issue. The article, "A Gibson Girl in New Guinea," can be read online at www.smithsonianmagazine.com. Westmorland, who is based in Mill Creek, Wash., teamed up with Mason for a two-month expedition to Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, retracing anthropologist Caroline Mytinger's journey of the 1920s.

Michele Westmorland and Karen Huntt have been voted two of the 40 founding members of the International League of Conservation Photographers. Westmorland and Huntt recently completed a two-month expedition to Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, retracing artist Caroline Mytinger's journey of the late 1920s.

The league was launched at the 8th World Wilderness Congress in Anchorage, Alaska, in...

Karen Huntt and Michele Westmorland, of the Mytinger Project, have received Scott Pearlman Field Awards for Science and Exploration from the Explorers Club. Pearlman awards are given to professionals in media and the arts to support documentation of exploration and field research.

Westmorland also has been invited to speak at the 8th World Wilderness Congress, to be held in Anchorage, Alaska, this October. She will give her presentation, "On the Trail of Headhunters," during the Conservation Photography...

Karen Huntt and Michele Westmorland have received sponsorship for a new project called "Headhunt Revisited." The project will celebrate the achievements of artist/explorers Caroline Mytinger and Margaret Warner, who chronicled various cultures in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands in the 1920s.

Westmoreland and Huntt plan to retrace the steps of the pioneering women and document the changes that have occurred through...