A growing number of artists from the Global South — beyond the borders of the so-called “West” — address questions of their own history and cultural heritage through colonial-era photographs. In their works, personal experiences and collective dimensions intertwine, fusing traces of memory with artistic imagination. Through textile, photographic, filmic and sculptural collages, new memories emerge which are not limited to a historical reflection on colonial oppression, but remain in movement, offer resistance and take shape as a living basis for the future. The volume A Kind of Paradise, published on the occasion of the exhibition of the same name at Museum Rietberg, represents the first broad and detailed investigation of this international phenomenon. The texts dedicated to the participating artists are accompanied by critical essays on the history of photography in the colonial era. Kimberly Juanita Brown is director of the Institute for Black Intellectual and Cultural Life at Dartmouth College. Nanina Guyer is curator of photography at Museum Rietberg. Patricia Hayes is Chair of Visual History & Theory at the University of the Western Cape. Deborah Willis is Chair of the Department of Photography & Imaging at New York University. Bindi Vora is an interdisciplinary artist and Senior Curator at Autograph, London.