Discovery Channel's Urban Explorers TV Show

In 2004-2005, I was an urban historian and on-camera host for a Discovery Channel show titled Urban Explorers. Five episodes of the show (Milwaukee, Chicago, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, and Denver) aired from June 27-July 1, 2005. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like Discovery is going to re-air them before October. I don't know yet know how people can get copies of the show. (The Discovery Channel is not yet selling DVDs.) But if I do find out where to get copies of the shows, or if it is re-broadcast, I'll put the information on this website.

ABOUT ME

I’m a photographer & writer based in Brooklyn, NY. My education was in urban history at Columbia University, where I had the chance to learn from wonderful urban historians such as Kenneth Jackson. As I started to explore the city, I also had the chance to meet people such as Julia Solis of Darkpassage and LB Deyo of Jinx, who were equally inspiring.

I have been exploring tunnels and hidden, forgotten, or inaccessible places in New York City since 1996. I began taking pictures because I was fascinated by what I found underground in the city, and I wanted a way to capture and convey what I was seeing: labyrinths of utility tunnels, glorious cityscapes from inaccessible rooftops, graffiti murals that only a handful of people would ever see, or century-old underground spaces.

The more I explored the “invisible” parts of the city, the more I became intrigued by the history and the stories behind them, and the more I got interested in history, the more I wanted to go out and find historical artifacts and spaces. But I was never particularly interested in museums or in “preserved” or “reconstructed” artifacts or buildings. What I like about going into inaccessible places is the sense that I'm seeing authentic things-- experiencing historical artifacts directly-- instead of having the mediated experience of reading about places or seeing things in a museum.

Underground spaces are my favorite, and that is because underground spaces are often the most perfectly preserved and the least-seen parts of any built environment. They are physically separate from the above-ground world, and that physical separation creates a sort of experiential separation as well. When you go underground, especially into off-limits areas, you are experiencing something that time and the world has passed by. Just as underground spaces are protected from rain, wind, and sun, they are also protected from the eyes of most people. To go into such a place is almost to take a step directly into the past.

But, at the same time, it is not merely the direct historical significance of a site that makes it interesting to me. I love rooftops and high places almost as much as I love the underground, and for many of the same reasons-- it's a chance to see the city in way that few other people get to, and to appreciate it in all its vertical glory. And whether you’re aboveground or belowground, seeing the city from a new angle brings home the richness of the layered urban environment: not just a physical layering of buildings and foundations and tunnels, but also the layers of history that have been laid down over the city like layers of paint on a canvas. Once you start seeing this layering, it is suddenly all around: you realize that above the familiar interior of your office building is the strange new world of its rooftop; and below your new apartment building is the old foundation of its predecessor; and below THAT is a sewer pipe that dates back to the 19th century.

My hope with the photos on this site is that they help convey some of the excitement that I find in the built environment. I hope that they convey some of the rich and layered history that exists in the places where they have been taken, and help you too take a step into the past.

I also work as a photographer for weddings and events. If you would like to consider hiring me, you can take a look at some of my work at www.SteveDuncanPhotos.com or you can email me at Steve (at) undercity.org.

I occasionally give slideshows; a normal slideshow will cover 8-10 historically significant sites in various cities (with a focus on NYC, of course, as that is where I do the majority of my photography). My slideshows run about one hour, or a bit more with questions at the end. If this is something you’d be interested in booking me for, please email me. I really enjoy doing slideshows, so if it’s a good cause or sounds like fun I might do it for free. Just a note: I run slideshows off my laptop or off a CD but I don't have a projector of my own, so the equipment that is needed on your end is either a digital projector and a screen, or a room with installed A/V equipment so that I can just bring a CD with the slideshow and put it into the installed computer.

I also edit and publish maps of New York City with Opus Publishing, a company I founded with a partner in 2003. You can see the maps and buy them online at www.opuspublishing.com. They are the best maps of New York City on the market; please purchase one.