Each of Thomas Struth’s "paradises" is a piece of nature devoted to a specific overarching theme. In his photographs measuring up to 9 by 11 feet, Thomas Struth draws the viewer into the
magical semidarkness of forests and jungles, the impenetrable yet bright green of trees, bushes, tropical plants, and mossy brooks. Struth found his paradises in China, Japan, Australia,
Brazil, Germany, and, more recently, in Peru, Florida, and Hawaii. With 11 new pictures, the expanded new edition of his Paradise book contains the entire series of 36 photographs as full-page
plates. In their essays, psychologist Ingo Hartmann and art historian Hans Rudolf Reust each shed light on our current understanding of so-called untamed nature, its exploitation and
mystification, not to mention as a basis for utopias.
