Significantly expanding the scope and functions of the HaFI pamphlet series, Ben Alper and Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa present visual unknowns and forgotten gestures from the defunct archives of American mid-century news photography. Carefully curated and collated, their iconographic essay, a Bilderatlas of sorts, explores in depth the notion of “hide,” and of what forces normative relations to the visible serve to veil. How can, how should these images be looked at? And how do they unsettle the contemporary gaze?

Significantly expanding the scope and functions of the HaFI pamphlet series, Ben Alper and Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa present visual unknowns and forgotten gestures from the defunct archives of American mid-century news photography.