This photograph shows an album containing photographs of the 1931 Exposition Colonial de Paris. This international exhibition, the largest in French history, took 25 years to plan and organise, and was held over a period of six months. It saw the participation of various European colonial powers such as Britain, Italy and Portugal, with the only two non-European participants being Japan and the United States of America. Most exhibition pavilions showcased native architecture from various Asian and African colonies, as well as efforts by the colonialists to improve the lives of the colonised peoples, in an attempt to justify and glorify the notion of colonialism. The exhibits included images of the Angkor Wat and buildings from Madagascar. This is a presentation copy signed by the official exhibition photographer, Marcel Braun. Each photograph also carries the photographer’s blind stamp monogram.
