In 1965 the northeast of America experienced a blackout that lasted up to 12 hours in some places. It put millions of people in the condition to discover darkness again. In New York, the vertical city, lifts didn’t work, candles and flashlights become precious and the only lights in the streets were the car headlamps and the lighting inside the buses.

Rene Burri went in the street for a visual adventure: the “writing with light” without light.

He walked about twenty blocks, taking photographs until after midnight and witnessed the most astonishing scenes, but no crimes, no lootings, no robberies....