On Thursday 26 April, local illustrated book press, Robert & Christopher Publishers, will launch their latest title, Pictures from Paradise: A Survey of Contemporary Caribbean Photography. The multimedia launch event, which is part of the NGC Bocas Lit Fest, will take place at Medulla Art Gallery, 37 Fitt Street, Woodbrook, from 6.30pm. RSVP here.

Pictures from Paradise – the first in Robert & Christopher’s planned series of thematic explorations – seeks to examine the ways in which contemporary art photography has evolved within the English-speaking Caribbean, rising beyond idyllic scenes to tackle more intricate issues. Within the past few years, regional artists working with the medium of fine art photography have provided an increasingly searching image of the Caribbean and the people who inhabit it. In recognising that the region is not the picture-perfect paradise of traditional depictions, these artists focus instead on what is not easily seen or that which is often ignored – the complex social, racial, political, and physical relationships and landscapes that exist within the Caribbean.

Edited by Melanie Archer and Mariel Brown, Pictures from Paradise features a critical essay by O’Neil Lawrence, assistant curator of the National Gallery of Jamaica, and 230 images from 18 artists. Four of these artists – Gerard Gaskin, Abigail Hadeed, Alex Smailes and Rodell Warner – are from or are based in Trinidad & Tobago. The book’s other artists – Ewan Atkinson, Marvin Bartley, Terry Boddie, Holly Bynoe, James Cooper, Renee Cox, Gerard Hanson, Nadia Huggins, Marlon James, Roshini Kempadoo, O’Neil Lawrence, Ebony Patterson, Radcliffe Roye and Stacey Tyrell – are either based in the Caribbean or have ties to the region, which are addressed through their works selected for the book.

The launch is open to the public, and the book’s editors along with artists Bartley, Hadeed, James, Lawrence, Smailes, and Warner will be present to sign copies of the book, which will be sold for a discounted price of TTD$250 for the night of the launch only.