Often, we find ourselves powerless before great forces: extinction, colonialism, repressed trauma, modernity, apathy. But for some, the only thing more impossible than overcoming such forces is to not attempt to do so in the first place.

In the summer 2024 issue of Hidden Compass, five new storytellers have joined us from around the world to share stories about “Attempting the Impossible.” At the heart of their tales are brave souls — nostalgic repatriates, eccentric artists, courageous survivors, optimistic entrepreneurs, and resilient botanicals — battling the odds.

For two and a half years, journalist Christopher Clark explored what lies behind the perimeter fence of CAFI, the “Welcome Centre for the French of Indochina” — or, simply, “the camp.” In “France’s Forgotten Place of Memory,” our photo feature and Time Travel piece, Clark weaves stories that span nearly seven decades of repatriate life. Alongside intimate photography, he unveils a mix of torment and tenderness, pain and joy, and cultures separated by oceans, decades, and circumstance.

Meanwhile, in our Portrait story, journalist Margherita Bassi takes us to the windswept island of Sant’Antioco, Italy, where past, present, and future collide. She introduces us to a cast of artists weighing the challenges of tradition, adaptation, and mythology surrounding the historic textile of sea silk, or bisso. Though they are often at odds, they all face the difficult task of “Preserving an Ancient Thread” in the face of impending extinction and a modern world.

On picturesque Jeju Island, South Korea, memories of a suppressed past are breaking through. While living on the island for five years, psychologist and author Dr. Anne Hilty witnesses a mix of repressed trauma, Shamanic tradition, and healing. In her Chasing Demons feature, Hilty pays homage to the island’s dark past and introduces us to those who spearhead hope by “Breaking the Silence.”

Then, along the sandy shores of India’s western state of Goa, food writer Joanna Lobo tastes a delicacy that challenges the palate of her country. In this Human & Nature story, Lobo introduces us to Gabriella D’Cruz, the “Seaweed Queen” who’s either at the cutting edge of a revolution in food and conservation — or caught in a whirlpool of her own optimism.

Finally, seeking living remnants of history in the glasshouses of Croxteth hall, writer Genevieve Arlie embarks on a botanical Quest. Centuries of drama burst into bloom in “The Glamor and Tragedy of Orchids,” revealing a world of marvels and conquest. But can the “orchidelirium” that once gripped visitors survive the ravages of colonialism, war, and shifting political winds?

For our readers and storytellers who seek the inconceivable,

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

How do we illustrate what the past has bestowed upon us? Can we capture the glimmers of whimsy, the shadows of conquest, the mirage of misconception? Or, in some cases, does the legacy live on within us, waiting for the right moment?

In the spring 2024 issue of Hidden Compass, five inquisitive storytellers step headfirst into the varying “Hues of Inheritance” — bringing you stories of the dark, enchanting, hazy, and vivid manifestations of what we’ve received from the conquerors, artists, soldiers, travelers, and defiant civilians that came before us.

Below the transcendent and bedazzled golden architecture of the Gur-e-Amir in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, the crypt of Timur the Conqueror is said to possess an ancient curse. In his Chasing Demons feature, author Craig K. Collins ventures into the mausoleum complex alone, bringing to life the history and legend of “The Curse of Timur” — along with the brutal conquerors it so hauntingly connects.

After exploring a legacy of bloodshed, we turn to a different kind of inheritance. Time-worn images of a certain Caribbean island lure in millions of travelers annually — and have captivated writer and photographer Ella Calland for years. But beneath these vivid photographs of baby blue buildings and smoky cigars lies a more complicated truth. For our Portrait photo feature, Calland treads the path of Cuba’s tourists, pointing her lens at an often exoticized world. As she steps into “Postcards From Cuba,” she unearths what lies beneath the veneer of nostalgia. 

On the other side of the world, the past looms over the crowded dance floor of Lukiškės, a nightclub with a bloody history. These young Lithuanians, like their Baltic neighbors, stand once again in the shadow of Russian aggression. But in our second Chasing Demons story, journalist Tim Brinkhof finds it’s not only the horrors of the past that reemerge — so too do the many “Shades of Defiance.” 

While some hues of inheritance are dark, others are full of magic. In the frenzied workrooms where beloved characters first came to life, the pioneers of animation broke glass and lit fires in their Quest to capture the physical world on paper. Long after these innovators left their slanted desks, writer Heather M. Surls explores their legacy — in all its shapes and forms — and discovers the enduring strokes of obsession, enchantment, imagination, and family history that bloomed from the whimsical works of Disney’s “Hyperion” Studio.

Then, following the life and letters of Basil Hase Delaney Ankerson, a young man conscripted to fight in WWII at just 20 years old, journalist Tim Bird journeys to the sand-blown Egyptian desert and back in time. Adventure and peril converge across continents and generations as Bird’s Time Travel feature, “The Time of His Life,” takes us into the haze of the legendary Battles of El Alamein — where questions abound, and one man’s story is tied to the fate of thousands.

For our readers and storytellers who appreciate all the shades of legacy,

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

Larger than life forces are at work all around us, and they could change everything in a single moment — or a lifetime, or trillions of lifetimes.

In the winter 2024 issue of Hidden Compass, we bring you five stories of Turning Tides. Some tides turn quickly, some slowly — but all have the power to alter our terrain.

Beyond the marquee of a grand vaudeville theater in Astoria, Oregon, “The Vaudevillian Ghosts of Liberty” beckon. Entertainers of old grace the stage, revealing a world of ghosts and glamor, insult and entertainment, bigotry and inclusivity. In this Chasing Demons feature, journalist Melissa Hart ventures into the shifting waters of show business and wrestles with the legacies of those who came before her.

Glimpses of the past also feature in journalist Robin Catalano’s Quest story, illustrated by Henry Sharpe. The piece follows a leading paleontologist off a New Brunswick cliff and into ancient worlds. But the very forces that reveal these hundreds of millions of years of history may also erase them forever — prompting fossil hunters to engage in a high-stakes “Race Against Tide.”

Amid Sea Rangers, scientists, and underwater spectacles, journalist Jayme Moye introduces us to a 600,000-year-old ecosystem. Our Human and Nature feature showcases the Reef Cooperative, a pioneering collaboration that seeks to correct our relationship with Earth’s largest living structure, “The Magnificent Mother of Sea Country.”

In the Aryan Valley of India’s Indus river, ancient villages hold onto their past, and a different battle for preservation is unfolding. The Brokpa culture has deep roots that reach across continents. But as photojournalist Sugato Mukherjee finds in his Time Travel feature, “How Pure Was the Valley,” all is not what it seems.

Along the beach seine fishing communities of Sri Lanka, change is in the air — and the water, the economy, the culture, and the religious landscape. From the shores of Negombo Lagoon to the surprisingly unconventional nature of tradition itself, photojournalist Kang-Chun Cheng’s photo feature is a Portrait of “A Sea Change in Sri Lanka.”

For the readers and storytellers who are turning tides around the world,

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