Lainé has worked as a bike messenger, bureaucrat, university professor, sailor, farmhand and travel guide. Since starting his photojournalism career with Liberation, he has worked with magazines such as GEO, l'Express, VSD and Gamma and has been a correspondent in western and central Africa for Agence France-Presse. He has published three books, including "Kings of Africa," which won Villa Medicis and World Press Photo prizes.