Tristan da Cunha, a tiny volcanic island measuring just under 100 square kilometers, was discovered in 1506 by the Portuguese navigator of the same name. Photographer Richard Pak's book La Firme tells the singular story of the community that gradually settled on this remote island, how it evolved and passed on its idealistic founding principles of equality and sharing over the generations. The book is the culmination of a long-term documentary project in which the photographer lived in immersion with this community. The visual corpus is complemented by extracts from the photographer's logbook. In this way, Richard Pak questions the meaning and limits of this utopian regime based on mutual aid and sharing in the context of today's world.

An essay by Michel Poivert recontextualizes this work in the history of photography, while geographer Marie Redon, who has previously collaborated with the artist, provides a more scientific look at the geological and geopolitical context of this volcanic archipelago.