Toronto's master sewer-spelunker tells all

BLDGBLOG's Geoff Manaugh sez, "I just posted a long and heavily-illustrated interview with Toronto-based photographer and urban explorer Michael Cook.

His photographs are genuinely amazing, and almost literally unbelievable at times (and the interview includes a lot of them); but he's also a super-interesting guy: we talk about future archaeologists and historians who might look back at these photos and wish that they included more context; we talk about the ecological consequences of turning an entire natural watershed into a concrete underworld; we get into things like common injuries, respiratory infections, and other ailments (including one called Rinker's Revenge, that strikes urban explorers in Minneapolis); and we even touch on things like urban legends about secret tunnel complexes (some place is apparently home to human sacrifices… but no one's ever found it), how a lot of these places are actually discovered by skateboarders, and what it sounds like down there – when the only thing ahead of you is 5km of unmarked concrete and your voice turns into pure reverb.

So it's a fun interview, and Michael's images are great"

Link to interview, Link to Michael Cook's site

(Thanks, Geoff!)