Randy Olson, Melissa Farlow Photography

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  • Scars of World War II, a rusty gun mount marks a link in the Line Islands chain.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6778_671348.JPG
  • Evening falls over the islands of Palmyra.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6778_672503.JPG
  • Coqui frogs invaded the Hawaiian Islands from imported plants.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6842_956211.jpg
  • Three volcanoes, now dormant, formed Easter Island half a million years ago.  Rano Kau is the largest crater on the island with an aerial view from the mirador on the headlands. Inside is a lagoon of fresh water filling the crater that is almost a mile wide and 1,000 feet high above the Pacific Ocean in Rapa Nui National Park.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1477354-2.JPG
  • Ahu Akahanga – This small Moai in the blue light of late evening shows the early style for crafting Moais – he has really big eyes – shorter proportions - and it may have been associated with the Ahu behind it at this place over the ocean.  This area on the south coast had a higher population density and had more Moai.  The early statues were more variable in form… later they started to look more alike.<br />
<br />
Easter Island is the most remote inhabited island in the world.  The nearest population center is Chile (2300 miles) and the nearest Polynesian center in the opposite direction is Tahiti (2600 miles).  Easter Island, (Rapa Nui, Isla de Pascua) is famous for Moai everywhere along the coast toppled on their Ahu’s and littered abandoned in the center along the Moai roads used to transport them.  Polynesians had a knack for colonizing even the most inhospitable oceanic rock.  They were adept sailors, explorers, colonizers and their experience taught them the best way to escape war or famine was to sail east, to windward in search of new islands.  There is no evidence that a 2nd group reached the island in early history as Heyerdall alledges – in fact it points to the opposite.  Easter Island had military rule until 1965 and had cashless societies of fishing and farming that have since been broken apart by independence and a dependence on tourism.  Rapanui incest laws are strict with everybody tracing roots to 30 or so couples who survived 19th century Peruvian slave raiding and epidemics.
    MM8059_20110522_05453.tif
  • Restored moai stand watch at Ahu Tongariki on the east side of the volcanic island. Lined up on a platform with their backs facing the Pacific Ocean, the monolithic statues wear hats on top of their carved, minimalist human faces.<br />
Photo is shot from camera attached to a kite and triggered by remote before the use of drones.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493967.JPG
  • A Rapa Nui man fishes for rudderfish in high surf on Easter Island's south coast. Powerful waves blast the rocky, volcanic barrier to the island.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1477016.JPG
  • A view from half underwater and half above of a Rapa Nui man fishing for rudderfish in high waves on Easter Island's south coast.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493941-1.JPG
  • A Rapa Nui man fishes for rudderfish in high waves on Easter Island's south coast. Lava flows formed the rocky barrier from the three volcanos on the island.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493941.JPG
  • A couple strolls beneath power lines framing moai statues at Ahu Tahai. Over 100,000 tourists visit Easter Island annually.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493938.JPG
  • National Geographic photographer Randy Olson scuba dives with his underwater camera and strobes to photograph marine life and environment on the reefs off Ofu Island.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6541_663104.JPG
  • Aerial view of Tau Island landscape.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6541_663052.JPG
  • Three volcanoes, quiet now, formed Easter Island half a million years ago.<br />
An aerial view of the island shows red scoria stone used for headpieces found on some of the moai came from solidified froth of volcano lava.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493975.JPG
  • Three volcanoes, quiet now, formed Easter Island half a million years ago. Rano Raraku has a lagoon-filled crater seen in an aerial photo of the island.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1477354.JPG
  • Aerial photo showing a wate- filled cone of one of the three volcanoes, quiet now, but once formed Easter Island half a million years ago.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493976.JPG
  • A small herd of wild horses, introduced from Tahiti by Catholic missionaries in the 19th-century, trek across Easter Island.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493946-1.JPG
  • A small herd of wild horses, introduced from Tahiti by Catholic missionaries in the 19th-century, trek across Easter Island.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493946.JPG
  • A stringer with a brightly colored fish trails behind a spear fisherman. There is heavy shark activity in this area of Ofu Isalnd, Manu'a Islands, American Samoa, so the smart spear fishermen keep the bleeding fish on a string way away from their bodies.
    NGFishString.tif
  • A boobie rests in an alcove along the shore of Palmyra Island.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6778_672508.JPG
  • Plastic trash in Freedom Island's ecotourism area.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8515_2703572.jpg
  • Plastic trash in Freedom Island's ecotourism area.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8515_2703567.JPG
  • Plastic trash in Freedom Island's ecotourism area.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8515_2703550.JPG
  • Plastic trash in Freedom Island's ecotourism area just outside Manila, Philippines.
    MM8515_20171108_10178.tif
  • A boy on a swing in Easter Island's countryside.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493945.JPG
  • Tourists dive on Easter Island's reef encounter a moai that was made for a 1994 Hollywood movie and then sunk offshore. The reef is healthy, although it is overfished. <br />
Easter Island is the most remote inhabited island in the world, 2300 miles from Chile and the nearest Polynesian center the opposite direction is Tahiti, 2600 miles to the west.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1477347.JPG
  • A small herd of wild horses, brought to Easter Island from Tahiti by Catholic missionaries in the 19th-century, graze on the island near the quarry.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1494001.JPG
  • A small breed of wild horses, brought over from Tahiti, graze on Easter Island.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493942.JPG
  • A small herd of wild horses, brought by Catholic missionaries in the 19th-century from Tahiti, cross the main road through the island to graze.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1494001-1.JPG
  • Randy Olson, an American photographer on assignment with his friend, Kantu Tuki, an Easter Island photographer.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1494005.JPG
  • Glowing under night skies, restored moai statues stand watch at Ahu Tongariki. The largest ahu on Easter Island, the moai were toppled during island civil wars and later swept inland by a tsunami in the 1960s.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493967-1.JPG
  • Restored moai stand watch at Ahu Tongariki. RANDY OLSON Photographer photographs the mysterious statues for a National Geographic assignment on Easter Island.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493967-2.JPG
  • An ancient Moai statue and wild horses on Rano Raraku crater. Moai toppled along the road were left as rubble.Their eyes are not completed until they standing upright.<br />
A small herd of wild horses, introduced from Tahiti by Catholic missionaries in the 19th-century, trek across Easter Island.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493936.JPG
  • An underwater photo captures a piece of red plastic floating in Manila Bay. Over 500,000 tons of plastic trash wash out through this bay every year, contributing  to the 10 million metric tons of plastic seeps into the oceans annually, mostly from Asia.  The bay is one of the most polluted bodies of water in the world.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8515_2703541.JPG
  • Children learn about at an ancient skull on a tour of the Sebastian Englert museum named for a German priest who came to the island in 1935 and spent his life studying the Rapa Nui culture.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493982.JPG
  • An ancient Moai statue stands silently under the stars and night sky on Easter Island, the most remote inhabited island in the world. <br />
Monolithic figures were carved by the Rapa Nui people between approximately 1250 and 1700 A.D.. Many of the more than 900 statues are still at a quarry and some are lie along the roads. But hundreds of the 33 foot high moai weighing more than 80 tons  of volcanic tuff were transported and set on stone platforms around the island's perimeter. <br />
<br />
It is believed that the statues may have "walked" to their destinations by workers using ropes to rock them side to side although some archaeologists disagree thinking they may have been rolled on logs although the island is now treeless.<br />
<br />
The nearest population center is Chile (2300 miles) and the nearest Polynesian center in the opposite direction is Tahiti (2600 miles). Easter Island, (Rapa Nui, Isla de Pascua) is famous for Moai, tall statues carved out of rock that stand guard
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1477353.JPG
  • At a political demonstration in Hanga Roa, marchers carry the red and white Rapa Nui flag. They were supporting a move for independence from Chile which annexed Easter Island in 1888. <br />
Rapa Nui were granted Chilean citizenship and in 2007, the island gained the constitutional status of "special territory." marchers carry the red-and-white Rapanui flag.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1477015.JPG
  • Tourists photograph a Rapa Nui native dancer in body paint. Approximately 6,000 Rapa Nui live on Easter Island, which belongs to Chile. They numbered only 111 in 1877 after slave traders and disease decimated the population. <br />
Most people associate Easter Island with the famous, ancient statues known as moai and are unaware that descendants of the Polynesian culture inhabit the island today.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1477351.JPG
  • A native dancer, a tourist and a dog at Ahu Tahia in modern day Easter Island.<br />
Situated near the town of Hanga Roa, the ahu sits near a canoe ramp and was restored by an archaeologist in 1974. <br />
It is perched alone on a ceremonial platform.<br />
Tahai is thought to be among the earliest ahu structures on the island dating back to 690 AD.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493965.JPG
  • A Rapa Nui man with his girlfriend watch tourists explore the moai on Easter Island. As the numbers grow for tourism, they outnumber locals who like their quiet island life.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1477352.JPG
  • At a political demonstration in Hanga Roa, marchers carry independence from Chile banners. Easter Island was annexed by Chile in 1888. Rapa Nui were granted Chilean citizenship and in 2007, the island gained the constitutional status of "special territory."
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493972.JPG
  • A Rapa Nui dancer with body paint listens to native musicians warm up back stage before the performance for tourists. on Easter Island.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493970.JPG
  • A Rapa Nui woodworker sands small statues of moai to sell to tourists. Nearly 100,000 travelers make the trek to the most remote inhabited island in the world.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493957.JPG
  • A Rapa Nui dancers paint their bodies before a music and dance performance for tourists on Easter Island.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493950.JPG
  • Photographed at night, restored moai with red topknots on Akakena Beach stand under night skies, windswept clouds and stars glowing in the distance on Easter Island.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493996.JPG
  • A palm tree grove at Ahu Nau Nau surrounds a beach on a lush part of Easter Island.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1494004.JPG
  • A single restored moai stands watch at Ahu Tongariki and serene Hanga Nui Bay.<br />
Ahu Tongariki is the largest ahu and its moais were toppled during the island's civil wars, and in the twentieth century the ahu was swept inland by a tsunami. It has since been restored and has fifteen moai, including one that weighs eighty-six tons, the heaviest ever erected on the island.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493988.JPG
  • A wedding is celebrated Rapa Nui style with traditions followed by some tourists on Easter Island.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493933.JPG
  • Restored moai with topknots on Akakena Beach. Two of the seven moai have deteriorated that stand above a white sand beach. Archaeological value is high, however, because it was the first ancient city on the island and founded by the first king of  Rapa Nui, Ariki Jotu Matua.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493995.JPG
  • Glowing under night skies, restored moai statues stand watch at Ahu Tongariki. The largest ahu on Easter Island, the moai were toppled during island civil wars and later swept inland by a tsunami in the 1960s.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493990.JPG
  • Chilean newlyweds in festive paint and feathers celebrate marriage Rapa Nui style. Many of the 100,000 visitors to the island are from Chile which dwarf the less than 6,000 inhabitants.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1477349.JPG
  • Ancient Moai statues dot a hillside on Rano Raraku crater on Easter Island. Between the 12th and 15th centuries, Rano Raraku was the main quarry for the massive monolithic sculptures created by the Rapa Nui.<br />
Statues lie in various states of production--some half carved, others broken or abandoned. Maoi stand half buried in the slope from years of erosion.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493964.JPG
  • Ancient Moai statues dot a hillside on Rano Raraku crater on Easter Island. Between the 12th and 15th centuries, Rano Raraku was the main quarry for the massive monolithic sculptures created by the Rapa Nui.<br />
Statues lie in various states of production--some half carved, others broken or abandoned. Maoi stand half buried in the slope from years of erosion.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493935.JPG
  • Ancient Moai statues dot a hillside on Rano Raraku crater on Easter Island. Between the 12th and 15th centuries, Rano Raraku was the main quarry for the massive monolithic sculptures created by the Rapa Nui.<br />
Statues lie in various states of production--some half carved, others broken or abandoned. Maoi stand half buried in the slope from years of erosion.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493992.JPG
  • A petroglyph of a face at Ahu Tongariki. Often overlooked because of the more visible moai statues on Easter Island, rock art petroglyphs are more sophisticated and unique in design.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493932.JPG
  • Maoi statue replicas lie under a street light near the entrance to a hotel on Easter Island.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493980.JPG
  • Ancient Moai statues dot a hillside on Rano Raraku crater on Easter Island. Between the 12th and 15th centuries, Rano Raraku was the main quarry for the massive monolithic sculptures created by the Rapa Nui.<br />
Statues lie in various states of production--some half carved, others broken or abandoned. Maoi stand half buried in the slope from years of erosion.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1477353-1.JPG
  • Ancient Moai statues dot a hillside on Rano Raraku crater on Easter Island. Between the 12th and 15th centuries, Rano Raraku was the main quarry for the massive monolithic sculptures created by the Rapa Nui.<br />
Statues lie in various states of production--some half carved, others broken or abandoned. Maoi stand half buried in the slope from years of erosion.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1494003.JPG
  • Ahu Ature Huki is a lonely moai, more robust and older than its admired neighbors of the Ahu Nau Nau on Easter Island.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493999.JPG
  • Samoan men haul a gift of a gutted pig to a wedding reception.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6541_653551.JPG
  • A diver searches for tasty seafood in a coral reef in the National Park of Amer ican Samoa.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6541_653562.JPG
  • Local youngsters play on the beach at a youth camp.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6541_663039.JPG
  • Father and son play in the bay.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6541_663101.JPG
  • Underwater view of swimmers and a boat at the surface of the ocean.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6541_663065.JPG
  • A barren tree floats adrift in the crystal-clear waters of Palmyra Atoll.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6778_672502.JPG
  • A man swings to splash-down on an uninhabited tropical atoll.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6778_671356.JPG
  • A school of barracuda.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6541_663044.JPG
  • A girl plays in a taro field while the leaves are being harvested.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6842_964827.jpg
  • A family tending their taro fields, threatened by apple snails.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6842_964803.jpg
  • The northeast coast of Maui is rugged and sparsely populated.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6842_964831.jpg
  • During church service, a child in its mother's arms is amused by a parishioner in the next pew.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6541_653558.JPG
  • Samoan workers trudge through vegetation carrying machetes and bundles made of woven pandanus leaves.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6541_653554.JPG
  • Children play on the beach at a youth camp.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6541_663111.JPG
  • A Samoan family takes a dip in the bay.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6541_663095.JPG
  • A Samoan's body is covered with traditional tattoos.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6541_663040.JPG
  • Young Samoan girl attends Sunday services at Sailele Congregational parish.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6541_663013.JPG
  • Local couple takes a dip in the bay at sunset.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6541_663100.JPG
  • Children swimming in the bay at sunset.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6541_663063.JPG
  • Families traveling to a wedding in Hawaii bring fine mats s gifts.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6541_663033.JPG
  • A warm glow comes from a meeting house at twilight in the American Samoan villa ge of Sa'ielele.  Even the local dogs show up at the social center to nip at th eir fleas.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6541_653555.JPG
  • Clown fish seeks refuge among sea anemone tentacles.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6541_663068.JPG
  • Restored moai stand watch over landscapers mowing grass near Anakena Beach where according to oral tradition, high-ranking chiefs of the powerful Miru clan established their residence.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493930.JPG
  • Children swimming in the bay at sunset.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6541_663060.JPG
  • Spearfishing in the bay.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6541_663070.JPG
  • Spearfishing in the bay.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6541_663066.JPG
  • A stringer of brightly colored fish trails behind a spearfisher.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6541_653560.JPG
  • A moai statue at Ahu Akahanga sleeps under a starry night.<br />
According to tradition, the remains of Hotu Matu’a, the founding ancestor of the Rapa Nui people, are placed here at Ahu Akahanga.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493991.JPG
  • A petroglyph with a birdman motif that is half man and half bird and connected to cult events at the sacred site Orango.<br />
The purpose of the Birdman competition was to obtain the first egg of the season from an offshore islet, Motu Nui. Contestants descended the sheer cliffs from Orongo and swam to Motu Nui where they awaited the coming of the birds. The first to procure an egg became the winner. He presented it to his sponsor who then was declared Birdman for that year, an important status position.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493993.JPG
  • A woman harvests taro leaves on the family farm.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6842_964829.jpg
  • Hunters with dead axis deer, an invasive introduced species.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6842_956210.jpg
  • A grasshopper scales a leaf.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6778_672509.JPG
  • Seabirds fill the sky over Palmyra Atoll.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6778_672506.JPG
  • A coconut crab, the largest land crustacean.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6778_672494.JPG
  • Surgeonfish  slice through the coral rich waters off Palmyra.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6778_672488.JPG
  • Underwater coral scene off Palmyra Atoll.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6778_672479.JPG
  • Coconut crabs, the largest land crustacean, live unmolested on Palmyra.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6778_671354.JPG
  • A coconut sign marks a building erected as a mess hall for a failed copra plantation
    RANDY OLSON_MM6778_671352.JPG
  • Shark-hunting dogs help control the local shark population on Palmyra.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6778_671351.JPG
  • A masked booby attends a nestling.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6778_671349.JPG
  • Convict surgeonfish swim through the water above coral.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6778_671346.JPG
  • The American National flag sways in the breeze at twilight.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6778_672504.JPG
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