This looks like one to cross off the holiday wish list. Papua New Guinea’s capital Port Moresby is universally regarded as one of the worst places on earth. Lawlessness to shame the Wild West is in full force; gangs of criminals, known in the local dialect as Raskols, roam the streets engaged in bloody warfare with each other. Fair play to Aussie documentarist Stephen Dupont for going anywhere near the place.

Raskols: The Gangs of Papua New Guinea, soon to be published by powerHouse Books, is Dupont’s study of his time there in 2004. Normally thought of as a place of exceptional beauty, forests and unmodernised tribal living, the capital was at the time of Dupont’s visit the world’s most unliveable city according to the Economist.

Using vivid monochrome photography and interviews with Raskol gang members, Dupont paints a terrifying picture of a society in meltdown, of unemployment, poverty, corruption and killing. The book’s foreword gives a brief history of the circumstances that led to such a state of affairs, and from then on the images do the talking, occasionally etched with quotes from those he photographed. Powerful stuff.

All photographs from Raskols: The Gangs of Papua New Guinea by Stephen Dupont, published by powerHouse Books.