Just outside Paris, there is a peculiar park, where ruins of pavilions and greenhouses lie among overgrown grass, weeds, and wild tree branches.
The site hosts the remains of one of the world's few "human zoos," called the Jardin d’Agronomie Tropicale. In the early 20th century, white visitors would come to see the exotic animals, plants, and other products of the European empires. They would also gawk at the actual people from territories in Africa, Asia, and Oceania who were brought there.
From 1899 to the late 1910s, the zoo served as an agricultural laboratory and exhibition space. In the decades following World War I, the area was largely abandoned, until it reopened in 2006 as a public park.
An American photographer who works under the pseudonym Seph Lawless documented portraits of the site in his latest photo series, "Human Zoo."
He shared them with Business Insider below.
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Around the turn of the 20th century, the French government allotted 16 acres of land for an experimental botanical garden, called the Jardin d’Agronomie Tropicale.
The name translates to "Garden of Tropical Agronomy."
The garden's primary function was to test whether tropical and non-native plants and crops, like coffee, vanilla, cacao, and banana, could be grown in France.
The site's entrance features the remnants of an arch in the style of traditional Chinese architecture.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider