n 1999, Spanish photojournalist Pablo San Juan was combing through a Moroccan flea market, looking for cameras and old photographs, when a vendor suggested he visit an antiques dealer who had a selection of glass plate negatives. The plates, packed in small, worm-damaged boxes, showed tanks and biplanes dating from World War I. Who shot the photographs, and how they ended up in Morocco, the dealer didn’t know.

San Juan bought the collection on behalf of Jesús Rocandio, director of Casa de la Imagen (House of the Image), in Logroño, Spain. When he delivered the images to Rocandio’s archivists, they started searching for clues to the photographer’s identity. Their search is the subject of The Tangier Archive, edited by Carlos Traspaderne (Uniform Press, 2016) and illustrated with some of the captivating photographs found in Morocco.