Renowned photographic historian Deborah Willis and slavery historian Barbara Krauthamer discuss their pioneering book, Envisioning Emancipation, which focuses on 150 photographs—some never before published—from the antebellum days of the 1850s through the New Deal era of the 1930s. The book vividly displays the seismic impact of emancipation on African Americans born before and after the Proclamation, providing a perspective on freedom and slavery, and a way to understand the photos as documents of engagement, action, struggle and aspiration.