This debut monograph from award-winning Belgian photographer Maroesjka Lavigne (born 1989) includes six of the artist’s series: Island, Land of Nothingness, Habitat, Not Seeing is a Flower, Animal Cabinet and You Are More than Beautiful. Each of these series spans several years in the making, in which the artist traveled throughout Iceland, Korea, Japan and many parts of Africa, observing landscapes and their inhabitants.

Lavigne’s subjects range from stark landscapes to spare, haunting portraits and unforgettable animal images; she produces stunningly beautiful images that are tenderly attuned to their settings and subjects. As the photographer puts it: When you take a picture in a beautiful place, you have to realize that nature isn’t the background for your photograph. Rather, you are its prop.