An increasing number of artists from the Global South—beyond the traditional 'West'—are addressing questions of their own history and heritage through photographs from the colonial era. In their works, they blend personal encounters with collective experiences, interweaving traces of memory with artistic imagination. Through textile, photographic, filmic, and sculptural collages, new memories emerge that do not stop at a historical reflection on colonial oppression but remain in motion, offer resistance, and serve as a living foundation for the future.

The volume A Kind of Paradise, published on the occasion of the exhibition of the same name at Museum Rietberg, is the first comprehensive survey of this international phenomenon. Texts on the participating artists are complemented by critical essays on the history of colonial-era photography.

Kimberly Juanita Brown is the Director of the Institute for Black Intellectual and Cultural Life at Dartmouth College. Nanina Guyer is the Curator of Photography at Museum Rietberg. Patricia Hayes is the Chair of Visual History & Theory at the University of the Western Cape. Deborah Willis is the Chair of the Department of Photography & Imaging at New York University. Bindi Vora is an interdisciplinary artist and Senior Curator at Autograph, London.