In the collective imagination, the African continent remains a wilderness paradise. This image has been constructed as much by the accounts of ethologists (Dian Fossey, Jane Goodall) as by cinematographic successes (Out of Africa, Atari) that have captured the splendor of the landscapes and the richness of an exceptional natural heritage. Above all, it is a universal memory built on clichés.

What remains of this paradise today? How does the continent’s economic expansion coexist with the need to preserve this incomparable capital? How are the tensions between the desire to embrace modernity and the need to conserve wildlife expressed? How can we reconcile the population explosion of the continent’s sprawling cities with the integrity of the territories that are home to indigenous peoples and wild animals? How can we show this tension between an imaginary world rooted in the past and a reality that is catching up with us?

Paradise Inc. is, in three chapters,

No Man’s Land: How to make the unseen seen
Warriors: Humans risking their lives for wildlife conservation
Men vs. Wildlife: Guide to understanding poaching, wildlife decline and conservation methods

a passionate photographic investigation that takes us deep into the heart of these fundamental questions.

“Paradise is the culmination of a twenty-year effort to document the final days of the great East African wilderness. It is the result of numerous expeditions into the African bush, during which I visited nearly every country of the continent. As a Frenchman of Malagasy heritage, born in Madagascar and raised in Kenya, I have witnessed firsthand the dramatic changes reshaping the continent over the past three decades trhough my work as a documentary photographer.”
- Guillaume Bonn