Struggles of Exposure

We chase exposure as a beacon of freedom and knowledge. We harness it to wield against our enemies. We hope it heals the wounds within and between us. In the blinding light, all can be revealed — but it’s the struggles of exposure that weave exceptional tales.

In the winter 2026 issue of Hidden Compass, five storytellers chronicle the power and vulnerability born from “Struggles of Exposure.” They take us from an 18th-century Calcutta prison cell to a Mongolian avalanche site, chronicle campaigns for freedom of the press and freedom of religion, and weigh impossible questions that leave old friends estranged and former nomads rootless.

For our Time Travel department, Kolkata-based journalist Sugato Mukherjee walks through modern-day scenes — from newspaper hawkers in a pre-dawn drizzle to historic, ornate mansions — that hint at powers that once battled here. On one side is Mukherjee’s journalistic predecessor, James Hicky, an Irishman who founded India’s first newspaper, the Bengal Gazette, and then risked his life to brandish it against corruption and abuse of power. On the other, the British East India Company, a covetous behemoth intent on silencing “The Dissension of the Prison Printer.”

Returning to our pages with a Portrait that originally ran in our summer 2023 issue, photojournalist Rachel Wisniewski pivots to freedom of religion in “A Devilish Pursuit.” Through a compelling blend of narrative and images, Wisniewski’s photo feature introduces us to members of the Satanic Temple, whose modern-day battle for separation of church and state harkens back to the Salem witch trials, and the fate of one member’s 17th-century ancestor.

Deep in Mongolia’s northern taiga, an archaeological expedition braves grueling terrain in search of “The Reindeer Graveyard.” For our Quest department, archaeologist and photojournalist Andrew Califf kicks off the year as our 2026 storyteller in residence with a photo feature that focuses on a  cast of scientists and Dukha herders who meet at the site of disaster and, hopefully, discovery.

From the mountains of Mongolia we turn to the mountains of New York, where development threatens or promises to expose a town to the masses. Divided by the “Schism” are two lifelong friends, estranged by the future of the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail. In our Human & Nature feature, journalist Omar Drissi takes us to the village of Cold Spring — a place of contradiction, beauty, and a nagging question. Is the value of bringing people together worth the cost of tearing a town apart?

Alongside the imposing Pir Panjal mountains in Kashmir, something unnamed is happening in the pastoralist Guijjar and nomadic Bakarwal communities. In her evocative Chasing Demons feature with original illustration by Radha Ramachandran, journalist Mir Seeneen chronicles the pain of loss long ignored and the community of healing out loud — paying a poetic homage to those “Remembering a Nomadic Sky.”

For our readers and storytellers who are brave enough to face the light,

Sabine K. Bergmann and Sivani Babu, Hidden Compass Co-founders

In the last nine years, as we’ve expanded into global expeditions and documentary films, we’ve welcomed hundreds of thousands of new readers to Hidden Compass. Many of our newest readers are unfamiliar with our earlier stories, so we’re bringing some of them back. Every issue of Hidden Compass will now feature an article from the archives — one that complements the brand-new stories in the issue.