Picture Paradise chronicles the transmission and adoption of new developments in photography from Europe to the Asia-Pacific region. It is the first survey of the early photography from this diverse region covering India and Sri Lanka, Southeast and East Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, to the West Coast of North America. It includes pioneer local photographers as well as European photographers working in the region and reveals the rich heritage and the many outstanding achievements of the first century of photography in the Asia-Pacific region.

Picture Paradise features over seventy photographs and albums ranging from gem-like daguerreotype portraits through to the revolution in the mass production of views and portraits on paper made possible by the wet-plate and dry-plate glass negative-positive process, and on to the modern era of small format film cameras and photojournalism.