Photographer's Paradise

The photographs that make up this first book by renowned photojournalist Jean-Pierre Laffont serve as a powerful and provocative examination of the American dream. For nearly three decades, Laffont travelled the breadth of the United States, a true embodiment of American freedom. Documenting the country in all of its facets - from national crises and unsightly social injustices to heartfelt protest and solidarity, the photographer took full advantage of the access granted to him by the world's greatest democracy. He travelled all fifty of the United States to document a broad swath of the country's fabric, capturing America through some of its most turbulent eras. From the electric chair at Sing Sing to Women's Jello Wrestling, the Watkins Glen rock festival to the Kent State shooting protest in Washington DC, Laffont was front and centre to history as it unfolded. Never working on assignment, Laffont chased stories of his own volition with a lens that was at once compassionate, humanistic, and unflinching. Taken together, these pages tell the story of the chaotic, often painful, birth of twenty-first-century America - a place where a black president, gay marriage, and women executives have become the new norm. Photographer's Paradise reminds us of the power of the freedom of speech, as Laffont speaks truth to power through his camera lens.