A photo series by a Russian photographer has exposed the realities of violence against women in Papua New Guinea.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Listen Duration: 6 minutes 45 seconds 6 m Vlad Sokhin speaks to Richard Ewart ( Pacific Beat ) Download 3.1 MB

Vlad Sokhin told Radio Australia's Pacific Beat program he was appalled by the extent of the problem and decided to document what's happening in PNG through pictures.

"I'm Russian, and Papua New Guinea for us, it's really the end of the world so I really wanted to go there," Mr Sokhin said.

"I did research... and I was shocked that almost half of the female population of Port Moresby is abused by men."

PNG has a high rate of domestic and street violence, with 98 per cent of women in some highland areas reporting some form of abuse.

When Sokhin looked for visual evidence of the problem, he found none.

"I thought, maybe I'll be the guy to do it, so I just went there and started the project," he said.

Mr Sokhin interviewed more than 50 victims of abuse and says most of the women were enthusiastic about the project.

"Mostly all of them wanted me to take their pictures and share their story with the world," he said.

The exhibition was held during the UN sponsored Papua New Guinea Human Rights Film Festival in Port Moresby last year, and Sokhin says he felt a strong sense that people, at a community level, wanted to expose the true extent of violence against women in PNG and help reverse the trend.

"They told me, 'Now we see in one room all this visual evidence ... and we understand the horrible things happening in our country.'"

Sokhin's photos have been used in educational programs, in newspapers, by the UN and Amnesty International, and he says he's happy they're provoking a change in attitudes in Papua New Guinea.

"If people start to talk about it, they're not hiding it anymore."

The recent case of a woman who was tortured and burnt alive in PNG as a suspected witch has made headlines and provoked outrage worldwide.

It has highlighted the issue of violence against women in PNG, which statistics suggest is all too common.