The Visa pour l'Image photojournalism festival has often, over its 21 years of existence, come under criticism for its intense pessimistic focus on images of conflicts, suffering, violence, grief and hopelessness. And this year, it's likely to be the case once more as projects on Afghanistan, Pakistan, Congo and Madagascar take centre stage. However, a few photographers have been selected for their lighter, yet serious, projects. German photographer Ulla Lohmann is among them.

Her exhibition - Ash City. Fifteen Years of Ash: A Story of Survival, Hope and Persistence – takes a tragic situation and makes it into a hopeful message for the world community. Lohmann has spent the last eight years visiting, sometimes three times a year, the small city of Rabaul in Papua New Guinea. It used to be one of the most popular destination in the region, until September 1994, when the city was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Tavurvur, sending ash thousands of feet into the air, covering streets, fields and buildings, and ultimately causing more than three-fourths of the constructions in the city to collapse.

'Fifteen years later, people still live in the ruins of the past, hoping that one day Rabaul will again become the paradise it once was,' say the organisers.

'I never tell my mother what I'm working on, until I'm back,' she tells BJP. 'She would be too afraid for me.' And rightly so. Lohmann has often found herself in the middle of war zones or, in the case of Rabaul, on the slopes of an erupting volcano. 'That volcano is in constant eruption,' she says. 'And it's all sort of eruptions. Sometimes, you will be under a shower of fire balls. The thing to do is to keep staring at the fire ball until it's just a few meters away from you. Only then, you can move away. You can't just run anywhere, you have to know where the fire balls will land.'

Ulla Lohmann showing off her images at Visa pour l'Image

At other times, the 'bombs' as she calls them, will be too numerous. 'I have a video, shot in the dark, of a shower of fire bombs.' Of course, Lohmann hasn't shown the video to her mother.

Lohmann, who has already hiked the volcano more than 10 times, says that her work is more than just a record of the destruction it has brought to Rabaul. 'These people are content of what they have. They're staying in this city, despite the continuous flow of ashes, because it's their ancestors' lands. We, on the other hand, are never happy of what we have. We keep on trying to get more, buy the latest gadgets. We're very materialistic. For the people of Rabaul, a day without acidic showers or a day spent with their families is a good day.'

But beyond the quest for a more meaningful life, Lohmann's work illustrate the deep links there exists between a civilisation and its ancestral lands. 'I find this myself,' she says. 'This work has allowed me to find myself again, to realise where I come from in Germany.'

Back in Papua New Guinea, it hasn't always been easy for Lohmann to gain access to the people whose lives she wanted to document. 'It took me years to be accepted,' she says. 'But when they see you spend a lot of time with them, and coming back again and again, you gain their trust.'

For Lohmann's Mummies in Papua portfolio, which was shown at Visa's first nightly projections, the German photographer had to wait two years before being granted authorisation to see the mummies. In an isolated part of Papua, the Anga tribe used to preserve its dead, mummifying them. That tradition has been lost, until the tribe's grand-daughter's death.

'In 2001, I read in a travel guide one single sentence about this tribe. It said “They smoke their dead.” When I saw this, I had to go. It was hard to gain access. At first they refused to show me the mummies. So I came back the next day. Then, they said I could see them, but that they wouldn't tell me their stories. So I refused. The following they, they finally accepted to show the mummies and to tell me their stories.'

The lost tradition made a comeback when, a little girl, the tribe's grand-daughter died. 'I was with them when she died. We tried everything. I had a satellite phone, but couldn't get through. We had a plane that could have helped us, but the fog prevented it from landing. The tribe's leader saw these events as signs that the lost tradition had to be restored.'

The mummies were brought back to the village, and with the help of an expert, restored for preservation. Now, the tribe's leader also wants to be mummified once he dies and has already asked Lohmann to record the event.

Lohmann's images, which are unique, have already attracted interest from Geo magazine in France, which found her through Visa. 'The festival brings together talented photographers with experienced people. It's been great for me.' However, young photographers shouldn't only count on an exhibition to get the exposure they're looking for.

'They need to adapt and always diversify,' she says. Lohmann has been financing her travels using grants or following the multimedia route using video. 'It's not always easy, but if you really want it, you can succeed.'