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Announcing HIDDEN: Animals in the Anthropocene

by | May 4, 2020

HIDDEN is an unflinching book of photography about our conflict with non-human animals around the globe.

Our Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign for our forthcoming book, HIDDEN: Animals in the Anthropocene, surpassed our initial funding goal in just over 72 hours! 

We are thrilled that we’ve raised the initial funds necessary to publish HIDDEN. However, our work doesn’t end there. We’ve set our sights on an exciting new target, one that has always been at the heart of both WAM’s mission and our hopes for this book — to circulate these images and the discourse they invite as widely as possible.

Our target is to sell 1,000 books and we’re nearly there. If we reach our goal, We Animals will commit to sending 100 books across the globe to people and organizations of influence: politicians, chefs, journalists, podcasters, teachers, NGOs, and world leaders. We’re really excited about this initiative and we’d love your input. If there’s someone you’d like to nominate to receive a book, drop us a note at books@weanimals.org. If you have an address for us, even better.

To reach this goal, we ask that you share this project far and wide. Share the link to this page, talk about the project within your networks and share on social media. Don’t forget to tag us @weanimals, and use our hashtags: #HIDDENbook and #animalsintheanthropocene. We know that with your help, and thanks to our generous publishing partners, we can make this happen.

HIDDEN is an unflinching book of photography about our conflict with non-human animals around the globe, as depicted through the lenses of thirty award-winning photojournalists. HIDDEN focuses on the invisible animals in our lives: those with whom we have a close relationship and yet fail to see. They are the animals we eat and wear. The animals we use for research, work, and for entertainment, as well as the animals we sacrifice in the name of tradition and religion. HIDDEN is a historical document, a memorial, and an indictment of what is and should never again be.

The stories within its pages are revelatory and brutal. They are proof of the emergency confronting animals globally, from industrial farming to climate change, and provide valuable insight into the relevance of animal suffering to human health.

Maxine
Steel barriers, concrete floors, tiled walls and push-button technology make up the habitat of the modern-day dairy herd. Poland, 2017.

Andrew Skowron / HIDDEN / We Animals

We are also honoured that the book’s foreword will be written by none other than longtime vegan animal rights advocate, Joaquin Phoenix:
Joaquin Phoenix

The photojournalists featured in HIDDEN have entered some of the darkest, most unsettling places in the world. The images they have captured are a searing reminder of our unpardonable behaviour towards animals and will serve as beacons of change for years to come. — Joaquin Phoenix, Actor

The We Animals team knew that HIDDEN was an important idea, and judging by the awesomely fast outpouring of support, it is apparent that the time is now for a book of this scale and scope. With that reality comes the exciting next step of getting this book into as many hands as possible. With help from you, our community, we’ll be identifying the politicians, chefs, teachers, NGOs, and world leaders who need to see HIDDEN for themselves.

Maxine
A fisherman carries a shark at a market in a region that’s one of the largest exporters of shark fin to China. Lombok, Indonesia, 2013.

Paul Hilton / Earth Tree Images / HIDDEN / We Animals

I am, quite simply, in awe of these photographers. In a way, they are like war photographers, except witness to a war that so many people choose to suppress that exists. This takes enormous inner strength and bloody-minded determination, because they cannot save any of the animals that they photograph; they can only hope that their photos will help illuminate the mass extermination that unfold every second of every day across the planet. To me, they are heroes. Not just for one day, but over and over and over again. — Nick Brandt, Photographer

But first, we are asking for your help with our next step: 1,000 books.

We are thrilled that we’ve now raised the initial funds necessary to publish HIDDEN. However, our work doesn’t end here. We are now at the starting line of a new goal: to share this critical book with as many people as possible.

Having surpassed our original fundraising goal of $65,000, we’ve set our sights on an exciting new target. What we’re now calling our stretch goal, has in reality, always been at the heart of both WAM’s mission and our hopes for this book — to circulate these images and the discourse they invite as widely as possible.

Our new target is to sell 1,000 books by June 7, 2020. It’s a BIG goal, but given the interest in the book thus far, we feel confident that together we can do it! If we reach our goal, We Animals will commit to sending 100 books across the globe to people and organizations of influence: politicians, chefs, journalists, podcasters, teachers, NGOs, and world leaders. We’re really excited about this next step and we’d love your input. If there’s someone you’d like to nominate to receive a book, drop us a note at books@weanimals.org. If you have an address for us, even better!

To reach this goal, we ask that you share this project far and wide. Share the link to this page, talk about the project within your networks and share on social media. Don’t forget to tag us @weanimals, and use our hashtags: #HIDDENbook and #AnimalsintheAnthropocene. We know that with your help, and thanks to our generous publishing partners, we can make this happen.

Maxine
Garbage day. A dead pig inside a refuse bin waits for collection outside a farm entrance. Denmark, 2019.

Selene Magnolia / HIDDEN / We Animals

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The time is now. HIDDEN needs to be seen by as many people as possible, and this can only happen with your support. ​

As always, thank you for your continued dedication to animals.

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